National Trust painting turns out to be a print
May 10 2024
Picture: nationaltrustcollections.org.uk
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The BBC have reported on news that The National Trust have discovered that a painting, previous catalogued as a work on paper, is in fact a print. The work of art at Oxburgh Hall in Norfolk was previously believed to be a straightforward copy of a Van Dyck executed in oil on paper. This was until it was sent away for conservation and its true identity and author was revealed.
According to the press release:
It was discovered the reproduction of the Three Eldest Children of Charles I was in fact a print by Jacob Christoff Le Blon, who first created the three-colour printing process.
"Only three Le Blon prints of it are known to survive, so to have discovered a fourth is really exciting," said National Trust curator Jane Eade. [...]
He was the first to create a three-colour printing process – the forerunner of the CMYK colour printing used today, external.
The revolutionary method used mezzotint, a monochrome printmaking process, with separate plates inked in blue, yellow and red, and superimposed on one another in order to create variable depth of hue.
