Imprimerie en Taille Douce: pl. I
1775
ink
From the collection of National Gallery of Art
1775
ink
From the collection of National Gallery of Art
This engraving shows a printing press in action, with a worker pulling a sheet of paper through rollers. The image is crisp and detailed, using tiny lines to create shadows and textures. You can almost hear the press crank turning. This is part of a book about printing techniques from the late 1700s. It explains how ink gets pressed onto paper in precise ways. The artist uses cross-hatching—a technique of overlapping lines—to show depth. See how the lines vary from thick to thin? That’s cross-hatching. Check out the National Gallery of Art, Washington for more prints like this.
