Brush etching. Beguin. http://www.polymetaal.nl/beguin/mapb/brush_etching.

htm

A technical dictionary of printmaking, André Béguin.

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Brush etching
Brush etching is a metal intaglio process which directly preceded aquatint*. Generally
speaking it can be considered part of etching. It could be said that brush etching encompasses
all of the aquatint processes as opposed to line work. This opposition is much the same as that
existing between line drawings and wash drawings. Wash drawings are ink drawings which
are usually done with diluted India ink or water colour. The artist manages to create half tones
and tints as well as shadows by superimposing layers of colour while the white background of
the paper provides the luminosity. Brush etching seeks the same effects as wash drawing,
however, it can also be combined with other etching techniques as well as with line work.
Brush etching should be distinguished from aquatint even though the two techniques were not
distinguished at the beginning on account of the similar results achieved. In fact it is often
very difficult to tell which one of the two techniques was first used by etchers. Nevertheless it
is possible to classify as aquatints all of those prints whose tones* are obtained by means of a
granulated surface* (a surface obtained by depositing a qrain*) whereas we will consider a
brush etching those whose tones are obtained in other ways. Usually the tones of brush
etchings are obtained by directly corroding the plate surface with a more or less watered down
solution of mordant. Despite these apparent differences the two techniques are often confused
in France where they are referred to as "aquatinte ou gravure au lavis" (aquatint or brush
etching).
Brush etching was the result of research clone in the 18th century to find a means of
reproducing paintings and colour* wash drawings as perfectly as possible. The concern for
"manners", the hall mark of that century, can be regarded as a turning point in the art of
printmaking both in terms of the spirit in which they were done and in terms of the techniques
used. The general tendency was to move closer to "Art", and although the engraver remained
an artisan he had to strive to imitate painters and drawers by imitating the tints, the tones, and
the colours of nature. It must not be forgotten that in the 18th century the reproduction of
paintings and drawings of masters was a necessity bolstered by the taste for originals and the
financial hurdles involved in buying them. Due to both their taste and their economic
constraints the new, rich, and cultivated bourgeois clientele provided a market for a half way
solution between the old fashioned print and the masterpiece. The engravers worked so well to
supply this market that the prints themselves became collector's items and were, at times, even
sold as drawings [*imitations]. It is not at all sure that this need for artisanal work to identify
with art should be seen as a positive development, especially when printmaking became
considered a minor art as compared to the Fine Arts. The positive side of this need to imitate
Art was that the techniques invented for imitative purposes actually enriched the craft. On the
other hand printmakers were hardly justified in their inferiority complex due to the exigencies
and limits of their craft.
The search for wash effects in prints certainly began at a very early date. Bartsch, in his book
"Le peintre Graveur", mentions two prints by the German engraver Daniel Hopfer (about
1470-1536) who achieved shadows "which took like wash drawings done with Indian ink".
One may also mention the mixed process which consists in printing tints obtained with
various wood* blocks onto etched lines in the chiaroscuro* manner. The first systematic
attemps to use the technique of brush etching resulted in the portraits of Cromwell and of
Queen Christina of Sweden made by Jan Van de Velde (1593-1641). Nonetheless François-

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Philippe Charpentier (1731-1817) announced in the "Avant-Coureur" on the 10th of July 1762
that he was the first to have engraved (etched) in the "lavis manner" (wash manner) but this
may have been already a kind of aquatint. Another engraver, G.]anssen, of Utrecht, had also
used a kind of brush etching technique between 1680 and 1722 which Jean-Charles François
(the inventor of the crayon* manner) used before the year 1758. In 1759 Jean-Baptiste Le
Prince, a painter, drawer, and engraver, whose aim it was to reproduce his highly succesful
sepia drawings, invented a method of reproducing them and presented his discoveries to the
Royal Academy of Painting (Paris) in a paper entitled "Plan du Traité de la gravure au
lavis" (Outline of a Treatise on Engraving in the Wash Manner). Although he called it such it
was already a fullfledged aquatint technique.

TECHNIQUE OF BRUSH ETCHING

Brush etching can be done in a variety of ways, most of which are listed under granulated
surface. The object of this method is to retain ink on the plate without engraving lines but
rather by "unpolishing" the plate more or less deeply and by making a mat surface that can go
so far as to be actually granulated. Such a surface and due to its characteristics causes the ink
to spread thus bringing about shades of colour rather than lines. In fact the wearing down of
the plate with fine abrasive* paper or by attacking it with a mordant allows for traces of ink to
be caught and retained by the plate.
The technique that is closest to wash drawings in
terms of both technique and the end result is the
direct biting of the plate with an acid applied with a
brush. In this method the brush is used to spread the
acid and to work in exactly the same way as a brush
is used to make a wash drawing with ink.
The plate must be well scoured before applying the
mordant [ * scouring]. The image made on the plate
may be spontaneous and improvised or then it may be
sketched with very light etched lines or with lightly
drawn drypoint. Another way of sketching is to stop
out parts of the plate using stopping out varnish, a
grease pencil, a lithographic crayon, acrylic paints,
etc. The most often used mordant in brush etching is
pure nitric acid at a concentration of 40°B which may
be diluted with water. The acid attacks the plate
surface and "unpolishes" the metal [ * attacking
agents]. This mat finish can be accentuated by
superimposing coats of mordant and by
differenciating the results by using different
concentrations. The stopping out mentioned above
may also vary the results obtained on the plate.
This kind of work should be done near a sink with
running water because it is essential that the effects of the mordant be stopped sharply, once
the desired result has been achieved, by washing the p}ate with plenty of water. Satisfactory
results in brush etching depend, as is the case of wash drawing, upon nuances and subtleties
which are often very delicate indeed. Because of this it is difficult to even indicate biting time.
In practise this technique calls for personal experience as well as quality of drawing.
The acid applied with the brush provokes a reaction on the plate which is in function of the
concentration of the mordant and the amount of time it is left to bite. It is quite easy to
experiment by putting a few drops of mordant, each at a different concentration, onto a plate

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and letting them bite. One may also notice the effect of time by much the same means.
It is only by printing that the results obtained will be obvious. On the other hand a practiced
etcher can judge the results without having recourse to printing and he can use the acid as if it
were an ink.
Other mordants can be used in brush etching such as iron perchioride, whose effects can be
well controlled because it blackens the plate as of the beginning of the biting process [*
attacking agents (salts), mordant]. Other mordants used are the honey* and sulphur* ones.
Powdered sulphur is mixed with oil until the consistency of a paste is reached. Spread this
paste in successive layers using a brush. This sulphur paste will attack copper plates and result
in a "fresh and suave tone" (Lalanne). In any case, all of these techniques are used to bring
about various tints rather than blacks even though the latter can be achieved with high
concentrations or a series of superimpositions. The whites achieved by stopping out the plate
complete the range of "colour" in brush etching. Brush etching may also be supplemented
with other etching techniques or even mechanical ones (with a roulette*, for example). Be
careful, however, not to destroy the characteristics of brush etching by a brutal etching
technique which would be in contradiction with the velvety texture of the wash tints achieved
by brush etching.

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