Traditional drypoints are made by using a scribe (a sharp metal pointy thing) and a burin (a different sharp metal pointy thing) to scratch marks into a smooth copper plate.
After drawing with the sharp metal pointy things, ink is rolled across the plate, and then gently rubbed off with cloth, leaving only the ink in the areas that were marked with sharp metal pointy things.
James McCallam
In a drypoint, it’s not just the scraped out lines that hold the ink, but the burr – a rough ridge of metal on each side of the furrow of the line – that holds the ink.
These burrs give a characteristic soft fuzziness to drypoint prints. Because of the burr, drypoint plates only print a limited number before they’re done, because each printing from the plate destroys the burrs a little, and once the burrs are gone, they no longer hold sufficient ink for a good print.
100 years after Rembrandt ran his series of drypoint plates in the 1600s, a man in the 1700s named Captain William Baillie acquired those plates. This gentleman thought the lines could use some new burrs, so he re-etched them with his sharp metal pointy things. He just…. did that. And he printed them. And they were bad. And then he sold them. He sold quite a few of these bad prints as original Rembrandts without anyone knowing.
“Gotcha, you fucker.”
-Suzanne Walker, WTF Art History Lecture on Rembrandt
An authentically original letter from Suzanne Walker, League Art Historian, imperceptively altered as it was copied and pasted here for your enjoyment:
The Hundred-Guilder-Print is an etching that was attacked with drypoint and burin, first by Rembrandt himself and then by our good friend Captain William Baillie.
Baillie didn’t get caught because he wasn’t committing a crime, by 18th-century standards. People are still debating about the Rodins made from his casts after his death Also, the market for Rembrandt prints was huge in England in the 18th century, and there was so much crap around that an inferior Rembrandt was not necessarily too aesthetically offensive.
Info on Captain Bill Baillie from Suzanne Walker’s WTF Art History Lecture on Rembrandt [nectar_image_comparison image_url=”9249″ image_2_url=”9248
There are drips on some drawings, and the drips are round, not running vertically down the paper, which suggests the paper is flat. Some of the drips start right before a line and follow the same direction, which suggests the artist loaded his brush with ink, and the brush dripped down on a horizontal surface …
I’ll be sharing my drawings on Facebook. I’d love for you to share yours too. Maybe we’ll get some people jumping in to join us. Post your pics on the Seattle Artist League‘s Facebook, or Instagram at SeattleArtLeague. #drawingaday #seattleartleague
[image_with_animation image_url=”6299″ alignment=”” animation=”None” box_shadow=”none” max_width=”100%”] Sara Rahbar Wiki: Sara Rahbar (born in 1976 in Tehran, Iran) is a contemporary, mixed media artist based in New York City. Her work ranges from photography to sculpture to installation and often stems from her personal experiences and is largely autobiographical. In 1982, Rahbar and her family fled …
One year ago in March, to protect our students and teachers from a new coronavirus, the Seattle Artist League moved our classes online. The virus was declared a national emergency, and we went into quarantine. We have now been in quarantine for thirteen months. Through this year, we have met each other online to draw, …
Gotcha, You Fucker!
[image_with_animation image_url=”9247″ alignment=”” animation=”None” box_shadow=”none” max_width=”100%”]
Re-etched Rembrandt Drypoint Prints
Traditional drypoints are made by using a scribe (a sharp metal pointy thing) and a burin (a different sharp metal pointy thing) to scratch marks into a smooth copper plate.
After drawing with the sharp metal pointy things, ink is rolled across the plate, and then gently rubbed off with cloth, leaving only the ink in the areas that were marked with sharp metal pointy things.
In a drypoint, it’s not just the scraped out lines that hold the ink, but the burr – a rough ridge of metal on each side of the furrow of the line – that holds the ink.
These burrs give a characteristic soft fuzziness to drypoint prints. Because of the burr, drypoint plates only print a limited number before they’re done, because each printing from the plate destroys the burrs a little, and once the burrs are gone, they no longer hold sufficient ink for a good print.
100 years after Rembrandt ran his series of drypoint plates in the 1600s, a man in the 1700s named Captain William Baillie acquired those plates. This gentleman thought the lines could use some new burrs, so he re-etched them with his sharp metal pointy things. He just…. did that. And he printed them. And they were bad. And then he sold them. He sold quite a few of these bad prints as original Rembrandts without anyone knowing.
An authentically original letter from Suzanne Walker, League Art Historian, imperceptively altered as it was copied and pasted here for your enjoyment:
Info on Captain Bill Baillie from Suzanne Walker’s WTF Art History Lecture on Rembrandt [nectar_image_comparison image_url=”9249″ image_2_url=”9248
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