Fine prints evolve through stages of development, often called "states." Printmakers create impressions of a print by inking the matrix (e.g., wood block, metal plate, lithographic stone), then pressing paper against it. After examining an impression an artist may change the way the print looks by altering the matrix, perhaps by adding just a line or two, or making more substantial changes in the composition. Or the artist or a printer might add letters (e.g., a title or signature) to the plate. Each time the matrix is changed and at least one impression is made, a new state of the print is created. 

Artists sometimes create many states of a print, making one or more impressions of each state as they develop their ideas. At some point in this process the artist may decide that the print warrants publication, or the printing of a number of impressions (an edition). Typically artists mark a good impression of the "definitive" state of the print as "bon a tirer" (good to pull). This example will serve as the printer's model for the edition. Impressions made prior to that, including those in earlier states, are generally referred to as working proofs, or sometimes progress proofs. Of course the artist (or others who get ahold of the plate) may return to the plate even after an edition is made and make more changes, creating more states, and possibly further editions as well.

Radical Alterations: Charles Meryon's Le Pont Au Change

In the early states of Charles Meryon's Le Pont Au Change (1854), a balloon bearing the name "Speranza" ("hope") floats over the bridge, at the left of the print (illustrated at the left below). Meryon printed a number of impressions of Le Pont in the fifth state, with the balloon. He reworked the clouds and figures on the bridge a bit in the sixth state, but eliminated the balloon in the seventh, and then in the eighth state shifted the sense of the print entirely by introducing a huge flock of crows, lending the plate an ominous and menacing quality (see detail of the changed plate at right). He may have been influenced by the Edgar Allen Poe poem The Raven. By burnishing the plate (eliminating the balloon) and etching in new elements, the aesthetic quality of the print was changed dramatically.             

Jacques Callot's (1592-1635) famous etching Le Marche d'Esclaves (The Slave Market) is shown below at the left. This is a first state impression. The plate is not finished; most obviously, there's nothing on the horizon or in the sky. In the second state, we can see a bridge and buildings on the horizon (even in these small photos), and they're recognizable - it's Paris, with the Pont Neuf and towers of Notre Dame. But Callot's first state was of ancient Roman ruins, Italian buildings, and Persian slave traders. Art historians were quick to see the discrepancy between the first and subsequent states, and recognized that someone had re-etched Callot's plate, adding a Parisien scene! Collectors of course want the rare first state; in the first state the plate is still in great condition, so the details are clear and well printed (even though the plate has an unfinished appearance). The later impressions (from the second state through the fifth) are worn, and less desirable.

Often artists want to add just a few lines or make a minor adjustment, and create another state of the print to do it. Here's an example of a Kenneth Hays Miller print (Pause by a Window) showing a little boy with his mother in front of a shop window:

Looking at the first and second states, at the left, it's difficult to see what changes Miller made. But the close-up at the right shows the change: he added a ball to the child's hand!

Some prints have letters, often in the margin below the print, or sometimes in the image itself - the title, a signature, the names of the printer, publisher or the print seller, or perhaps the date the print was made. Typically these are added after the first state of the print, and so an impression in the state before letters is the one to have - again, made when the plate is in nearer-to-pristine condition. With old master prints, plates sometimes were sold or inherited, and distibuted through successive dealers and publishers. Publishers typically burnished the names of the earlier publishers, and added their own, thereby creating a new state of the print. If cataloguers have accurately recorded these changes, we can sometimes date the successive states and impressions fairly closely; these letters might tell us whether the print was made during the artist's lifetime, or years later. Since signatures were often added after an early state, print connoisseurs often look for impressions of a print before the signature - the plate would have been in better condition, and is probably a lifetime impression. Since the letters stay with the plate, a print with a signature in the plate can quite frequently be a posthumous impression.

Often artists use a proof or early state impression as a draft, and actually draw or write on the sheet to indicate the changes they'd like to see, either as a reminder for themselves as they work on the plate, or as directions to a printer. In lithography, which generally involves an artist collaborating with a printer, there are some interesting examples of an artist giving directions to the printer, using a proof impression to do it. Here's an example of a first state proof of Les Andelys by the French Pointillist Paul Signac (1863-1935), with directions to his famed printer Auguste Clot:

A detail of the proof is shown at the right; one can see directions with arrows to the areas needing work. In the upper left margin of the entire sheet Signac has written "Bon a tirer apres toute les corrections indique" [good to pull after all the corrections indicated]. Corrections given include notes like these: clean up this grey, fill in this area with red, make these dots bluer. A student of Pointillism might find these notes interesting for what they reveal about the aesthetics and working process of this important modernist art movement.

Printmaking is fascinating in large part because it enables artists to leave a trail, through impressions of successive states, of the changes and adjustments made in the course of arriving at a final product. Sometimes artists make many states just to see variations on a theme they established early in the process; other times they're really working toward a final product which they'd like to be represented in an edition of the print. Small changes such as those in lettering are important to connoisseurs in establishing its publisher, the date of a print, or how early it was made in the course of an artist's career. Sometimes changes in states indicate that more than one artist has worked on the print. In sum, knowledge of states is critical to the collector's understanding of a print's development.

Harris Schrank

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