page_title: Drypoint
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Drypoint / History
caption_attribution_description: English: technique: drypoint, dimensions: 11.5x7.7 cm
context_page_description: Drypoint is a printmaking technique of the intaglio family, in which an image is incised into a plate with a hard-pointed "needle" of sharp metal or diamond point. In principle, the method is practically identical to engraving. The difference is in the use of tools, and that the raised ridge along the furrow is not scraped or filed away as in engraving. Traditionally the plate was copper, but now acetate, zinc, or plexiglas are also commonly used. Like etching, drypoint is easier to master than engraving for an artist trained in drawing because the technique of using the needle is closer to using a pencil than the engraver's burin.
  The term is also used for inkless scratched inscriptions, such as glosses in manuscripts.
context_section_description: The technique appears to have been invented by the Housebook Master, a south German 15th-century artist, all of whose prints are in drypoint only. Among the most famous artists of the old master print Albrecht Dürer produced 3 drypoints before abandoning the technique; Rembrandt used it frequently, but usually in conjunction with etching and engraving. As intaglio techniques, they can all be used on the same plate. Alex Katz used this process to create several of his famous works, such as  "Sunny" and "The Swimmer".
  In the 20th century many artists produced drypoints, including Max Beckmann, Milton Avery, and Hermann-Paul. By adding aquatint work on the plate and inking with various colours, artists such as Mary Cassatt have produced colour drypoints. Canadian artist David Brown Milne is credited as the first to produce coloured drypoints by  the use of multiple plates, one for each colour. On the West Coast of the United States the respected printmaker Pedro Joseph de Lemos simplified the methods for producing drypoints in art schools.
  Contemporary artists who have extensively used drypoint include Louise Bourgeois, Vija Celmins, William Kentridge and Richard Spare.
caption: Stanisław Masłowski, ca 1905, Portrait of Artist's Wife, drypoint, 11.5x7.7 cm, National Museum in Warsaw
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