Owen Jones’ Plans of the Alhambra, published 1842-5, are excellent chromo-lithographs. In quite modern times the old tradition is worthily upheld by William Griggs, whose colour plates of Illuminated MSS. in the British Museum are in every way excellent—indeed, for truth and fidelity to their originals they have never been equalled.
Munich was a sort of headquarters of lithography in the early part of the nineteenth century, when H. J. Mitterer succeeded to Senefelder’s establishment there. Among the first lithographers in Germany were J. M. Mittenleiter, who also invented the art of engraving on stone, and Joseph Hauber.
Most of the German lithographers contented themselves with making copies of existing pictures, and one of the finest examples of this kind of lithography is to be found in the Gemälde Galerie des K. Museums in Berlin, published in 1842, and containing excellent work by Fr. Jentzen, C. Fischer, and others.
Adolf Menzel did some notable lithographic work about the middle of the century, and Mouilleron, Eybl, and Ritter were all excellent workmen.
Belgian lithographers have nearly always been very good; besides Haghe, who worked in England, there were, with others, Tuerlinckoe, Van der Meulen, and Van Loo.
Although there have been lithographic workshops set up at Rome, Florence, Turin, Milan, and other towns, the art has never flourished much in Italy: it never appealed to the sensitive artistic Italian nature. Such examples as do exist are mostly portraits.
Lithography has been popular in Spain, and Spanish artists have done excellent work in this manner.
In 1824 J. de Madrazo published the most important Spanish work illustrated with photographs; it is called Collection lithographica de cuadros del Rey ... Fernando VII., lithographiada por habiles artistas, among whom are named J. Jollivet, P. Blanchard and A. Guerrero. The work of all of these is excellent. Lithographic work in Spain, so far as books are concerned, has been mostly of an archæological character—views of old buildings or old pictures particularly. F. Goya, however, worked largely in this manner.
All these methods of illustrating books worked by hand have now been superseded by one or other of the wonderful processes made possible by the invention of photography. Some of these are expensive, but generally they are cheap.
The most elaborate, and when well done the most wonderful, of these processes is that known as heliogravure. By means of this method reproductions of line engravings can be made so perfectly that detection is almost impossible. A metal plate is so treated by help of a photographic negative that the lines of the engraving are deposited in an insoluble form upon the plate, which is otherwise clean, then a thin film of metal is deposited on all the clean places by means of electrotyping, so that when the lines are dissolved out, they are in intaglio, just as they were in the original engraved plate. From this artificial plate prints can be made as if from an engraved plate.