Aquatint facts for kids

1835 aquatint showing the first production of I puritani. Note range of tones.

Aquatint is an intaglio printmaking technique, a variant of etching that only produces areas of tone rather than lines. For this reason it has mostly been used in conjunction with etching, to give outlines. 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.

It has been in regular use since the later 18th century, and was most widely used between about 1770 and 1830, when it was used both for artistic prints and decorative ones. After about 1830 it lost ground to lithography and other techniques. There have been periodic revivals among artists since then. An aquatint plate wears out relatively quickly, and is less easily reworked than other intaglio plates. Many of Goya's plates were reprinted too often posthumously, giving very poor impressions.

Among the most famous prints using the aquatint technique are the major series by Goya, many of The Birds of America by John James Audubon (with the colour added by hand), and prints by Mary Cassatt printed in colour using several plates.

Images for kids

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  Demonstration sections of printed aquatint, magnified.

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  Goya, No. 32 of Los Caprichos (1799, Por que fue sensible). This is a fairly rare example of a print entirely in aquatint.

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  Philibert-Louis Debucourt, The Public Promenade, 1792. Printed in colour from various plates, using etching, engraving, and aquatint. One of the leading achievements of the French 18th-century colour-print.

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  Joseph Lycett, The residence of Edward Riley Esquire, Wooloomooloo, Near Sydney N. S. W., 1825, hand-coloured aquatint and etching printed in dark blue ink. Australian print in the tradition of British decorative production. The artist had been transported for forging bank notes.

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  Mary Cassatt, Woman Bathing, drypoint and aquatint, from three plates, 1890–91

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  aquatint box, used to apply resin powder on the plate.

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  Zinc plate with powder resin.

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  Paul Sandby, The Iron Forge between Dolgelli and Barmouth in Merioneth Shire, Plate 6 of XII Views in North Wales, 1776, etching and aquatint printed in brown.

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  Paul Sandby, View near Edwinsford, Carnarvonshire, 1812, with colours added by hand.

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  Goya, # 20 from the Tauromaquia series (1816), The agility and audacity of Juanito Apiñani in the ring at Madrid, etching and aquatint

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  Eugène Delacroix, Turk Mounting His Horse, 1824, aquatint only.

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  Edgar Degas, Dancers in the Wings (Danseuses dans la coulisse), c. 1877, etching, aquatint, and drypoint

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  Félicien Rops, Little Sorceress, 1879, etching and aquatint

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  Comedy of Society, Jacques Villon

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  Allan Osterlind, Flamenco Dancers

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  Émile Dezaunay

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  T. F. Šimon, Second Hand Booksellers, Spring (in Paris), 1912, colour soft ground etching and aquatint

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  John Taylor Arms, On Lake Como, Number Two, 1919, colour printed etching and aquatint

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  Sydney Long, Hawkesbury Landscape, са. 1928, аquatint printed in dark blue ink.

See also

In Spanish: Grabado al aguatinta para niños