BOSSE, Abraham
(b. 1602, Paris, d. 1676, Paris)

Treatise on Engraving and Etching

1645
Engraving
Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris

In 1645 French artist and printmaker, Abraham Bosse wrote, illustrated and published in Paris the first treatise on engraving and etching techniques: Tracté des manieres de graver en taille douce sur l'airin. Later it went through many reprintings and translated editions in the decades and centuries to come. Although Bosse favoured the esthetic of the engraving, the technique of etching as he treats is basically that employed by Rembrandt, the greatest master of etching.

The present illustration is from a Dutch edition of 1662. which copied the illustrations from Bosse's. Here the acid is poured over the plate in a holder put together expressly for that purpose.




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