lithography

lithography. A method of printing from a design drawn directly onto a slab of stone or other suitable material. The most recent of the major graphic techniques, it was invented in 1798 by Aloys Senefelder. The process is based on the antipathy of grease and water, the design being drawn with a greasy crayon. After this has been chemically fixed, the stone is wetted and then rolled with oily ink, which adheres only to the greasy drawing, the rest of the surface, being damp, repelling the ink. Prints can then be taken in a press. Only certain types of stone are suitable for use in lithography, and zinc (from about 1830) and aluminium (from about 1890) have been employed as substitutes. The results they produce are usually identical. Colour lithography, using a different stone for each ink, was introduced in the 1830s. Many distinguished artists of the 19th and 20th centuries have worked in the lithographic technique (beginning with Goya in his old age), attracted by the freedom it allows (the artist need do nothing more than draw on the stone—the printer can handle all the technicalities), and Daumier was the first great figure to execute the major part of his life's work in lithography. Toulouse-Lautrec was another outstanding master of the process; he invented a novel method of creating a speckled effect by spattering ink on the stone with a toothbrush.