Cultivated Medlar (Mespilus germanica)

Discussion

FROM THE CLEVELAND MUSEUM OF ART’S CATALOG

The brown and blue-green inks were printed à la poupée. Instead of making a plate for each color, a single plate is selectively inked in different colors using stumps of rags, known as dolls ( poupée in French), so that the complete design is printed at one time . Since this process is laborious, the plate was most often colored by hand with watercolor, like the right-hand impression. The printed color, however, creates a more beautiful effect, because all of the subtleties of the shading are evident. In comparison, the watercolor camouflages some of the finest detail.

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