lithograph (LITH΄-ə-graf

    Lithograph is a term you may have heard now and then, but do you know what it means?  I've been chided by a poster-monger in Park City for my ignorance of the term, so I'll let you in on the secret.

     A lithograph is a type of print (an artistic work reproduced through some mechanical process, as opposed to an "original" work of art) created through lithography, a process which depends on the fact that water and oil don’t mix.  Because lithography is time-consuming and technical, most artists simply produce designs for lithographs and hire skilled technicians to make the actual prints.

     To create a lithographic print, the technician first transfers the artist’s design to a zinc or aluminum plate using oil-based ink.  (Originally, a piece of limestone was used instead of a plate—hence the name, lithography, from the Greek lithos, stone, and graphein, to write.)

     Next, the plate is moistened with water, which forms a stencil, since it adheres only to the un-inked areas.  The plate is then inked with oil-based ink, which adheres only to the previously inked areas.  A print is made by pressing a piece of paper against the inked plate.

    Lithography was invented in Germany in 1798.  While many contemporary artists produce lithographs, two masters of the genre are 19^th-century French artists Honoré Daumier and Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec.

A Toulouse-Lautrec lithograph in six colors from 1892.