The Discovery of Lithography
By 1801 a press had been established in London by Philipp André and soon after his brother received licence to establish a workshop in Paris. As these and other presses were established throughout the cities of Europe, so the refinement and dissemination of lithography advanced, such that by 1822 there were no fewer than 18 presses in Paris and many more had been established throughout France and Germany printing everything from texts to textiles.
It was Philipp André whilst working in London however, who was responsible for what was to become in lithography, the first collaborative project with a group of artists that included the President of the Royal Academy, Benjamin West. Whilst the resulting portfolio of prints entitled Specimens of Polyautography consisted of relatively crude printed pen and ink drawings, this portfolio at least demonstrated the potential of lithography and set the scene for the subsequent development of a collaborative tradition that still occurs today between artists and their printers.
As has been suggested this tradition of collaboration has been important, in lithography, since in general artists have always tended to need the services of highly skilled printers who understand the complexity of the process. Collaboration of course has also been responsible for the development of new techniques as printers have sought to find new approaches in printing that equate to techniques used in other media.
In the 1820s for instance, the English printer Charles Hullmandel and the artist Thomas Shotter-Boys were partly responsible for developing the sophisticated technique of chromolithography that could faithfully reproduce the colour and tone found in oil painting. In the 1870s James McNeil Whistler and Thomas Way helped to popularise transfer lithography, a process that had previously only been used in commercial printing. Thomas Way was also responsible for printing the remarkable lithotints used for Whistler's series of Nocturnes.