By JENNI LESTER
The Museum of Art’s exhibit “Allegories of Empire: British Bird Lithographs of the 19th Century” represents the 19th century British empire’s wealth and power and its interest in natural history through a display of bird lithographs.
Cheryl May, Museum of Art promotion director, said lithography is the art of producing printed images using the concept that grease and water do not mix.
May said the birds in the exhibit are from all over the British empire, which means they are from all over the world.
“They were a representation of the accumulation of power, wealth and knowledge of the British empire,” co-curator of the exhibit Dawn Pheysey said.
Mark Magelby, instructor of art history, said the exhibit is displayed in a Victorian setting to represent the time period the lithographs were made. He also said the setting includes furniture based on styles from around the world to reflect the breadth of the British empire.
May said the British saw one of their imperial duties as finding, classifying and describing all the flora and fauna in the empire. Phesey said British expeditions brought back plant, animal and bird specimens. It was from these subjects that the lithographs were created, she said.
The lithographs were originally bound into natural history books, Phesey said. Because the production of the lithographs was so expensive, an artist would print only sections of a collection at a time.
Before the production of the lithographs would even begin, the artists would sell subscriptions for portions of a series to wealthy patrons. The artist would give each section to a patron when it was completed, and then collect the money for the next section, Phesey said.
She said the patron was responsible for organizing and binding the collection into a book once all the sections were complete.
To begin the lithographic process, Phesey said, the artist used a greasy crayon to draw onto a flattened stone usually made of limestone. Once the image is drawn on the stone, it is sprayed with water. Only the areas of the stone not covered with crayon are dampened by the water. Then a greasy ink is transferred onto a large roller and rolled over the stone.
The greasy crayon lines attract the ink, but the dampened areas of the stone reject it, so the ink adheres only to the areas the artists has drawn, Phesey said.
A printer transfers the ink to paper through the use of a press, she said. A team of watercolorists then hand color the prints.
