Mezzotint

Mezzotint

Mezzotint is an engraving method that emerged in the 17th century, producing prints with smooth transitions of tone and deep, velvety black areas.

The mezzotint approach gained significant popularity in 18th-century England, especially for reproducing portrait paintings. In the mezzotint process, the metal printing plate is textured by moving a serrated metal tool over its surface. Each depression retains ink, resulting in a solid black image if printed as-is. However, the artist achieves a range of dark and light tones by progressively smoothing and burnishing different parts of the rough surface, reducing their ink-holding capacity.


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Parra's studio, with Parra at the centre, his back to the camera as he works on the large painting takes centre stage, showing a faceless blue woman in a striped dress, painted in red, purple, blue and teal. The studio is full of brightly coloured paints, with a large window on the right and a patterned rug across the floor under the painting.