Chromolithography
Fold-out chromolithograph illustrating an anatomical model of the male bodyDuring the second half of the 19th century vast numbers of colour lithographs were produced commercially. The term chromolithograph was applied to such commercial colour lithographs.
A colour lithograph required the use of as many as twenty separate stones or more, one for each colour, which were overprinted one after the other. The process required exact registration of the paper over the stones.
Fold-out chromolithograph illustrating an anatomical model of the male bodyGodefroy Engelmann (1788-1839), a German-born lithographer working in Paris, patented a frame for registration in 1837, while in England Hullmandel had made his own considerable advances.
Chromolithography appealed to the Victorians and their great love of colour.
This fold-out chromolithograph illustrating the anatomy of the male body is from the Manchester Evening Chronicle household medical adviser, a late Victorian reference work giving practical advice on childcare, illnesses, first aid and treatments.
In this exhibition
- The woodcut
- The copperplate engraving
- Further engraving techniques
- Medical and scientific illustration
- Colour
- The aquatint
- Illustrating literature: the revival of British book illustration
- The lithograph
- Hand-coloured lithographs
- Chromolithography
- Lithographic prints
- Photography
- Select bibliography