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Lithography in the Nineteenth Century

• 
  Boxers, 1818
  Théodore Gericault (French, 1791–1824)
  Lithograph

  Sheet: 15 3/16 x 17 11/16 in. (38.5 x 45 cm); plate: 9 x 16 3/8 in. (22.8 x 41.6 cm)
  Rogers Fund, 1922 (22.63.28)

• 
  Sieben Gegenden aus Salzburg und Berchtesgaden Geordnet nach den sieben Tagen der Woche, verbunden durch zwey allegorische Blätter (Seven Places in Salzburg and Berchtesgaden, Arranged According to the Seven Days of the Week), 1823
  (Johann Heinrich) Ferdinand Olivier (German, 1785–1841), artist and publisher
  Lithographs printed in gray and again with a light beige tone stone mounted on painted and gilt board with attached titles printed on brown paper; printed portfolio with green ribbons

  image 11 x 7 11/16 in. (27.9 x 19.5 cm), mount 17 7/8 x 22 5/16 in. (45.4 x 56.6 cm)
  Purchase, Anna-Maria and Stephen Kellen Foundation Gift, 2004 (2004.116.1–.9)

• 
  Pilgrim at the Gate, 1827
  Karl Blechen (German, 1798–1840)
  Lithograph, second state of two

  image 11 1/8 x 7 7/8 in. (28.4 x 20 cm), sheet 19 1/4 x 13 1/2 in. (49 x 34.2 cm)
  Janet Lee Kadesky Ruttenberg Fund, in honor of Colta Ives, 2007 (2007.225)

• 
  Mephistopheles in Flight, 1828
  Eugène Delacroix (French, 1798–1863)
  From Goethe's Faust, Paris, C. Motte, 1828
  Lithograph

  10 5/8 x 9 3/8 in. (27 x 23.8 cm)
  Rogers Fund, 1917 (17.12)

• 
  Central Park, Winter: The Skating Pond, 1862
  Charles Parsons (American, 1821–1910)
  Lithograph

  Image: 18 1/8 x 26 9/16 in. (46 x 67.5 cm); sheet: 21 7/8 x 29 7/8 in. (55.6 x 75.9 cm); storage (mat size): 30 x 40 in. (76.2 x 101.6 cm)
  Bequest of Adele S. Colgate, 1962 (63.550.266)

• 
  The Races, 1866–72
  Édouard Manet (French, 1832–1883)
  Lithograph, first state

  Sheet: 20 7/8 x 26 7/8 in. (53 x 68.3 cm); plate: 15 1/4 x 20 1/8 in. (38.7 x 51.1 cm)
  Rogers Fund, 1920 (20.17.2)

• 
  Council of War, 1872
  Honoré Daumier (French, 1808–1879)
  Lithograph

  11 3/8 x 9 3/16 in. (28.9 x 23.3 cm)
  Purchase, Jacob H. Schiff Bequest, 1922 (22.63.7)

• 
  Mlle Bécat at the Café des Ambassadeurs, Paris, 1877–78
  Edgar Degas (French, 1834–1917)
  Lithograph on wove paper (only state)

  Image: 8 1/8 x 7 5/8 in. (20.6 x 19.4 cm); sheet: 13 1/2 x 10 3/4 in. (34.3 x 27.3 cm)
  Rogers Fund, 1919 (19.29.3)

• 
  Nocturne: The Thames at Battersea, 1878
  James McNeill Whistler (American, 1834–1903)
  Lithograph

  6 3/4 x 10 1/8 in. (17.1 x 25.7 cm)
  Harris Brisbane Dick Fund, 1917 (17.3.159)

• 
  Moulin Rouge: La Goulue, 1891
  Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec (French, 1864–1901)
  Lithograph printed in four colors; three sheets of wove paper

  74 13/16 x 45 7/8 in. (189.99 x 116.51 cm)
  Harris Brisbane Dick Fund, 1932 (32.88.12)

• 
  Day: From the series Dreams, 1891
  Odilon Redon (French, 1840–1916)
  Lithograph

  Image: 8 1/4 x 6 1/8 in. (21 x 15.6 cm); sheet: 17 5/8 x 12 7/16 in. (44.8 x 31.6 cm)
  Rogers Fund, 1920 (20.30.6)

• 
  Parallèlement, 1900
  Pierre Bonnard (French, 1867–1947)
  From Paul Verlaine's Parallèlement, Paris, A. Vollard, 1900
  Color lithograph

  11 15/16 x 9 13/16 x 1 3/16 in. (30.3 x 25 x 3 cm)
  The Elisha Whittelsey Collection, The Elisha Whittelsey Fund, 1970 (1970.713)
  © 2011 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / ADAGP, Paris

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Lithography was invented around 1796 in Germany by an otherwise unknown Bavarian playwright, Alois Senefelder, who accidentally discovered that he could duplicate his scripts by writing them in greasy crayon on slabs of limestone and then printing them with rolled-on ink. Because the local limestone retained so relentlessly any crayon marks applied to its surface, even after repeated inking and printing, lithographs (so called from the Latin for stone, litho, and mark, graph) could be printed in almost unlimited quantities.

Thanks to ease of production and economical distribution, it did not take long for lithography to find a broad range of applications in art and commerce.

Related

Timelines (4)

• Eastern Europe and Scandinavia, 1800–1900 A.D.
• France, 1800–1900 A.D.
• Great Britain and Ireland, 1800–1900 A.D.
• The United States and Canada, 1800–1900 A.D.

Primary Thematic Essays (5)

• Edgar Degas: Paintings and Drawings
• Impressionism: Art and Modernity
• James McNeill Whistler (1834–1903)
• The Print in the Nineteenth Century
• Romanticism

Other Thematic Essays (26)

• Alice Cordelia Morse (1863–1961)
• American Impressionism
• American Scenes of Everyday Life, 1840–1910
• The Ashcan School
• The Daguerreian Age in France: 1839–1855
• Édouard Manet (1832–1883)
• Henri de Toulouse–Lautrec (1864–1901)
• Henri Matisse (1869–1945)
• International Pictorialism
• Japonisme
• List of Rulers of Europe
• The Lure of Montmartre, 1880–1900
• The Nabis and Decorative Painting
• Nineteenth–Century French Realism
• Post–Impressionism
• The Postwar Print Renaissance in America
• Presidents of the United States of America
• The Printed Image in the West: Aquatint
• The Printed Image in the West: Drypoint
• The Printed Image in the West: Engraving
• The Printed Image in the West: Etching
• The Printed Image in the West: History and Techniques
• The Printed Image in the West: Mezzotint
• The Printed Image in the West: Woodcut
• Wisteria Dining Room, Paris
• Women Artists in Nineteenth–Century France

Maps (2)

• Europe, 1800–1900 a.d.
• World, 1800–1900 a.d.

Index Terms (22)

Artist

• Blechen, Karl (German, 1798–1840)
• Bonnard, Pierre (French, 1867–1947)
• Daumier, Honoré (French, 1808–1879)
• Degas, Edgar (French, 1834–1917)
• Delacroix, Eugène (French, 1798–1863)
• Gericault, Théodore (French, 1791–1824)
• Manet, Édouard (French, 1832–1883)
• Olivier, Ferdinand, or Johann Heinrich Ferdinand Olivier (German, 1785–1841)
• Parsons, Charles (American, 1821–1910)
• Redon, Odilon (French, 1840–1916)
• Toulouse–Lautrec, Henri de (French, 1864–1901)
• Whistler, James McNeill (American, 1834–1903)

Geography/Place

• France
• Nineteenth–Century Art from the United States
• Nineteenth–Century European Art

Material and Technique

• Lithograph

Subject Matter/Theme

• French Literature
• Literature and Literary Connections
• Portrait Print
• Print with Seasonal Imagery
• Theater
• Winter

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Thanks to ease of production and economical distribution, it did not take long for lithography to find a broad range of applications in art and commerce. As a means of multiplying drawings, it was embraced by portraitists and illustrators, especially those associated with the popular press (22.63.7; 63.550.266), and it proved an effective means of graphic invention for many of the period's greatest artists (20.17.2).

Early in the century, Romantic painters such as Théodore Gericault (22.63.28) and Eugène Delacroix (17.12) came to appreciate the shifts of tone that could be achieved with lithography: stirring, dramatic effects like those produced with charcoal or black chalk. Some of the Impressionists used the medium to capture fugitive effects of weather or light. James McNeill Whistler, an American who made his career in Europe, used the medium to capture the subtle grays of a seascape veiled in fog (17.3.159), and Edgar Degas (19.29.3) explored the varied forms of natural and artificial lighting at night. Near the end of the nineteenth century, similarly artful manipulations of black and white characterized the work of Symbolists searching for the means to evoke the world of dreams and the unconscious (20.30.6).

When improvements in printing technology made it possible to add color to lithography and increase the size of the printing base, commercial possibilities ballooned. Advertising was revolutionized in the 1880s and 1890s by the production of bright mural posters (32.88.12) and art collectors began to enjoy a greater range of offerings in color prints and illustrated books (1970.713).

Colta Ives Department of Drawings and Prints, The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Citation Ives, Colta. "Lithography in the Nineteenth Century". In Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2000–. http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/lith/hd_lith.htm (October 2004) Related exhibitions and online features Special Exhibitions (including upcoming, current, and past exhibitions) Pierre Bonnard: The Late Interiors

These related Museum Bulletin or Journal articles may or may not represent the most current scholarship. Heckscher, Morrison H. "Creating Central Park." The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin, v. 65, no. 3 (Winter, 2008). Reff, Theodore. "The Technical Aspects of Degas's Art." Metropolitan Museum Journal, Vol. 4 (1971). JSTOR | PDF