Aquatint is an intaglio printmaking technique, a variant of etching that produces areas of tone rather than lines. For this reason it has mostly been used in conjunction with etching, to give both lines and shaded tone. It has also been used historically to print in colour, both by printing with multiple plates in different colours, and by making monochrome prints that were then hand-coloured with watercolour.
Sir Francis Seymour Haden PPRE, was an English surgeon, better known as an original etcher who championed original printmaking. He was at the heart of the Etching Revival in Britain, and one of the founders of the Society of Painter-Etchers, now the Royal Society of Painter-Printmakers, as its first president. He was also a collector and scholar of Rembrandt's prints.
Sir Charles Holroyd RE was an English painter, original printmaker and curator during the late Victorian and Edwardian eras up to and including the First World War. He was Keeper of the Tate from 1897 to 1906, Director of the National Gallery from 1906 to 1916 and Assessor (Vice-President) of the Royal Society of Painter-Etchers & Engravers from 1902 to 1917.
Sir Francis Job Short PPRE was a British printmaker and teacher of printmaking. He revived the practices of mezzotint and pure aquatint, while expanding the expressive power of line in drypoint, etching and engraving. Short also wrote about printmaking to educate a wider public and was President of the Royal Society of Painter Etcher & Engavers from 1910 to 1938. He was a member of the Art Workers' Guild and was elected Master in 1901.
The etching revival was the re-emergence and invigoration of etching as an original form of printmaking during the period approximately from 1850 to 1930. The main centres were France, Britain and the United States, but other countries, such as the Netherlands, also participated. A strong collector's market developed, with the most sought-after artists achieving very high prices. This came to an abrupt end after the 1929 Wall Street crash wrecked what had become a very strong market among collectors, at a time when the typical style of the movement, still based on 19th-century developments, was becoming outdated.
Ernest Stephen Lumsden, was a distinguished painter, noted etcher and authority on etching.
Ellen Day Hale was an American Impressionist painter and printmaker from Boston. She studied art in Paris and during her adult life lived in Paris, London and Boston. She exhibited at the Paris Salon and the Royal Academy of Arts. Hale wrote the book History of Art: A Study of the Lives of Leonardo, Michelangelo, Raphael, Titian, and Albrecht Dürer and mentored the next generation of New England female artists, paving the way for widespread acceptance of female artists.
John Alexander Thomas Shirlow was an Australian artist.
Robert Charles Goff (1837–1922) was a printmaker and painter who specialised in topographical scenes. As an etcher he was strongly influenced by the work of James McNeill Whistler.
Geoffrey Heath Wedgwood, ARCA, RE was a British etcher and engraver, best known for his architectural etchings.
Howard Helmick was an American painter, etcher, designer and illustrator, who was well known for his oil on canvas paintings. He specialized in figure painting and engravings. He was best known for his Irish genre studies, and paintings of Irish households.
Sir Claude Francis Barry, 3rd Baronet, later calling himself Francis Barry, was a British etcher and painter in oils who often used a pointillist style or a limited palette of flat colours.
Leonard Russell Squirrell was an English artist. He produced watercolours and etchings, and his work included images for commercial companies.
Augusta Payne Briggs Rathbone was an American painter, etcher and printmaker. She studied at the University of California, Berkeley and in Paris. She depicted people and locations from San Francisco, the Sierra, New York City, the West Coast of Canada, the Canadian Rockies, and France. In 1938, she published a book of aquatints of French Riviera Villages with photographs by Juliet Thompson and text by Virginia Thompson. Her work appeared internationally in group and solo exhibitions, and continues to appear in retrospectives of American printmaking.
Myra Kathleen Hughes was an Irish artist and etcher, best known for her series Vanishing London.
Earl Horter was an American painter, illustrator, printmaker, teacher and art collector. He was instrumental in introducing modern art to Philadelphia as both an artist and collector of Cubist and abstract art. During the 1920s, he had one of the largest collections of modern art in the United States, and he was among the most prominent etchers of his generation.
Margaret Stirling Dobson ARE (1882-1965) was a Scottish painter, printmaker and author.
Charlotte Lawrenson was an Irish portrait and mural painter and lithographer.
Emmanuel Robbe was a French painter and printmaker, best remembered as a proponent of the aquatint and à la poupée techniques in etching. A graduate of the Académie Julian and Beaux-Arts de Paris, his works were regularly published in the magazines Les Maîtres de l'Affiche, L'Estampe Moderne, and Cocorico. He also exhibited at the Société des Artistes Français and the 1900 Paris Exposition where he was awarded a bronze medal. He also served in First World War, and was awarded a Croix de guerre for his service.
George Atkinson was an Irish designer, printmaker, painter, and educator. Born in County Cork, Ireland, he became the director of the National College of Art in Dublin and played a significant role in the development of art education and the arts and crafts movement in Ireland during the early 20th century.
