Jonge vrouw voor haar toilettafel 1758

Richard Houston created this mezzotint engraving of a young woman at her toilette, sometime in the 18th century. The mezzotint technique is remarkable, relying on a painstaking process to create an image entirely from tone. First, the copper plate would be systematically roughened with a special tool called a "rocker." Then, the artist would use a scraper to selectively burnish areas of the plate, creating smooth surfaces that would hold less ink, and therefore print lighter tones. Houston has used this method to great effect, rendering the soft textures of the woman’s dress and the delicate light on her face. The velvety blacks and subtle gradations of tone give the print a painterly quality, almost like a charcoal drawing. In its time, mezzotint was prized for its ability to reproduce paintings, making art more accessible to a wider audience. Looking closely, we can appreciate the skill and labor involved in this now-obsolete process, blurring the lines between reproductive print and original work of art.