Smoke image
A smoke image ( soot image ) ( Italian Fumi) is a drawing technique that, according to Meyer's Konversationslexikon , was introduced in 1888 as an idea by German artists in Rome .
They used to turn their empty plates and blacken the back over the light in order to scratch caricatures with toothpicks on the blackened surface. They usually chose moonlight effects. They took from such a porcelain plate a aquatintaähnlichen footprint by moistened paper on the plate and a napkin over it, wondering what was removed with a spoon. After that, the porcelain plate was not steamed evenly black, but deepest where the darkest shadows and brightest lights belonged. The air was immediately made cloudy with the soot, so that little drawing was needed. If one had then drawn in with pens of various thicknesses, one steamed up again if some areas had become too bright, whereby one could obtain inks of the greatest delicacy. Over time, I managed to fix the images.
The history painter Gally brought smoke drawing to the greatest perfection. His drawings, of which he did not take any print, were exhibited in Milan in 1845. At the end of the 19th century, this technique was particularly popular with August Schleich in Munich († December 26, 1865), who supplied numerous works in it. He found a number of imitators who, however, did not bring the manner to any further perfection.
Different meaning
The term smoke picture also describes large-format views from the 19th and early 20th centuries, which show idealized factories with smoking chimneys .
literature
- The smoke painter . In: The Gazebo . Issue 20, 1867, pp. 311-313 .
