Introduction

A comprehensive and accessible catalogue of Worthing's print collection has been much needed for some time. Its purpose is to act as an easy-to-use resource for curators, researchers and general enquirers, as well as informing the world at large about Worthing's print collection. It complements our Catalogue of Paintings and Drawings that was produced in 1988. It is the first time the entire print collection has been recorded in this way, listing as it does over six hundred and seventy prints, and illustrating well over sixty of them.

Prints started being collected by the Museum when it first opened in 1908. There was no formal collecting policy in the early years so the subject matters, dates and printmakers vary enormously. Works have arrived in the collection either by donation, bequest or purchase. Since the 1970s we have adhered to a strict collecting policy: prints should relate to, or fill gaps in, significant areas of British printmaking history and British art in general. They should have a Worthing or Sussex connection.

You will see that many are described as Sussex Room Collection. This refers to a section of the museum building that was once part of the old Worthing Reference Library. Prints, newspapers and other documents were stored there and could be viewed on request. In the early 1970s the library moved to its current site next door to the museum, and the Sussex Room became curator's offices and the antiquities store (as it is today). The provenance of these prints is not known but they were catalogued into the museum collection in 1973.

Quite a number of prints are described as Purchased from the Thorpe Collection. This relates to a body of work owned by James Thorpe (1876-1949) who was a cartoonist for 'Punch' magazine. We purchased the works after his death in 1949.

One might say that Worthing's print collection has many strands or themes. For example there are a number of works by some of the early printmakers such as Robert Dighton (1752 - 1814) and Charles Knight (1743 - 1826) as well as later, prolific printmakers like Ernest Stamp (1869 - 1942) and George Baxter (1804 - 1867). Equally, there are established artists from the turn of the 19th century whose paintings and drawings became popularised when they were copied into print and thus could be mass-produced.  Samuel Prout, Henry Bunbury and Thomas Rowlandson were some of the artists who profited from the new printmaking processes.

Naturally, many works either show topographical views of the local area or have strong links with Worthing, Sussex or the South East region. Some fine topographical examples include James Rouse's Worthing views of the 1820s and 30s and Richard Henry Nibbs' many etchings of Sussex churches (1850s). On another level, Frank Short was known for developing the printing techniques of aquatint and mezzotint in the late 19th, early 20th centuries, and we own an extensive collection of his Sussex landscapes. Similarly, Gwenda Morgan's wood engravings of rural Sussex (1940s -1970s) have illustrated a number of books.

There are also some rather fine prints of the local area by artists perhaps better known as painters than printmakers. For example, in 1963 we purchased an etching of 'The Black Rabbit, Arundel' by Graham Sutherland, one of Britain's most important artists of the 20th century. There are also works by Gyula Sajo (1918 - 1989), a Hungarian artist who settled in Worthing and taught many local artists the skills of painting and printmaking.

The reproductive qualities of printmaking make the work more affordable for collectors than one-offs such as a painting or a sculpture.  Over the years Worthing has acquired a fine and varied selection of prints by nationally well known artists without great expense. Artists of the 19th and 20th centuries such as William Nicholson, Augustus John, Frank Brangwyn, William Orpen and Hubert Herkomer are represented. Etchings by the early 20th century Camden Town artists such as Walter Sickert, Therese Lessore and Sylvia Gosse provide a link with Worthing's strong collection of Camden Town paintings.

There remain some other significant areas to the print collection. Cartoons by John Leech, and later Philip May and George Belcher (purchased from the Thorpe Collection and fellow 'Punch' cartoonists of Thorpe) form an entertaining section. A set of six fine lithographs (1914 - 1918) by the etcher and painter Muirhead Bone chart part of his years as an Official War Artist in both wars.

Certainly the most well known print in the collection for which we receive regular enquiries from visitors is  'News from Worthing' by Robert Bloomfield. It is a hand coloured stipple and line engraving showing a satirical cartoon of Princess Amelia (sister to the then Prince Regent, later George IV). She is pictured precariously riding a donkey in the sea at Worthing; a scene which recalls her famous visit to the town in 1798. The picture and some equally satirical verses appeared in the 'Monthly Mirror' newspaper in 1807.

We continue to acquire new prints for the collection. These can vary in date but we are currently making efforts to update our modern and contemporary section.

Prints are produced for different reasons as Worthing's varied collection shows. Beyond obvious commercial reasons there is the intention to commemorate or record scenes and events as well as widening access to images. Above everything however, is the individual artist's pleasure at mastering, exploring and ultimately sharing this highly skilled and varied craft.

Laura Kidner
Curator (Art and Exhibitions)

Museum volunteers provided valuable help in the preparation of this catalogue. Thanks are especially due to Sarah Marshall-Dornan who undertook a complete and thorough audit of the print collection.

The following people kindly gave permission for works in copyright to be illustrated:

Sylvester Bone for the work of Sir Muirhead Bone.
Terry Griffin for the work of Terry Griffin.
Alison Milner-Gulland for the work of Alison Milner-Gulland.
Patrick Hughes for the work of Patrick Hughes.
Mrs Elizabeth Banks for the work of William Nicholson.
John Randle for the work of Gwenda Morgan.
Martin Muncaster for the work of Claude Muncaster.
P.E. Pike and Paul Sparrow for the work of Luther Roberts.
Csaba Sajo for the work of Gyula Sajo.
Robert Karrer for the work of Graham Sutherland.

In some cases it has not been possible to trace the owners of copyright despite an extensive search. If we have overlooked a copyright holder then we offer our sincere apologies and will be glad to hear from them.

Please notice that the print collection is not on permanent display. Changing selections of prints or individual works go on show from time to time, often tying in with our annual exhibitions programme. If, however, you would like to see particular works from the print collection, it is always advisable to contact the relevant curator and make an appointment.

In the catalogue entries, height precedes width.
Inscr: means inscribed.
All prints acquired to the end of July 2007 are included.

We appreciate that the various printing techniques described in this catalogue are not widely understood so we offer some basic explanations here. Please note that these are not definitive and that there is a great deal more to be learned from many books on the subject of printmaking. We are particularly indebted to Bamber Gascoigne's book: 'How to Identify Prints'.

Engraving
First used around 1430, it involves cutting lines into a hard material. A pointed tool called a burin is used for cutting, then colour or ink is rubbed in to the lines to make a print. There are different types of engraving:

Wood engraving is a print from a block of wood that is marked across the grain of the wood.
Line engraving is a term used to describe prints of the 18th and 19th centuries that made their image by lines alone.

Steel engraving began in the early 19th century. Fine engraving into steel lasted well when printing long runs of bank notes and made forgery difficult.

Stipple engraving meant suggesting tone in a print by lots of dots. It worked well for reproducing a crayon or chalk drawing.

Etching
A century younger than engraving, etching required a needle to cut the hard ground rather than a burin. The cut lines were then bitten by acid to create a workable printing plate. The needle made for straighter edges and angles and more sketchy effects than an engraving could produce. Etching suited architecture and landscape subjects. Soft ground etching meant that tallow was added to the normal wax etching ground, before being spread on the plate.  It stopped it from fully hardening and made for a soft, broken line, like that of a crayon.  A zinc etching was a late 19th century term for relief halftone.

Woodcut
This technique developed in Europe in 1400 and involved cutting with a knife on the plank side of the wood block.  With a method similar to woodcarving, the final image stood up as a level surface in relief.

Relief, Intaglio and Planographic
The oldest of the three basic types of print, relief is six centuries older than intaglio and nine centuries older than planographic printing.  The ink is carried on raised parts of the printing surface as opposed to being carried in lowered grooves (intaglio) or on the surface itself (planographic).  Above, below or on the surface; there is no other way of printing.

Collagraph or Collograph
This kind of print is made by printing from objects glued to the block.

Linocut
During the 20th century this modern method of relief printing involved cutting into linoleum instead of wood or metal.  Popular in schools and colleges, it is both cheap and easy to work.  Picasso favoured this printing method in later life.  Relief prints have also been made from sheets of rubber, vinyl, hardboard, chipboard and many other materials.

Monoprint or Monotype
A less common method of printing, it involved reversal of the printed image but can never be repeated.  Each image is unique, hence the name mono.  It has in this sense closer links with painting than printing.

Screenprint or Silkscreen
This method of printing can be repeated but the image is not reversed.  Closer to colouring by stencil than to true painting, there is still a natural link between a screenprint and a traditional colour print: the image is built up by gradually applying a series of different coloured inks.

Lithograph
An easier method than engraving, images can be made on the lithographic stone almost as simply as drawing on paper.  The results are more subtle than engravings so it can be harder to identify.

Photolithograph
Developed from the 1850s onwards, and as a result of the invention of photography, it involved creating an image photographically on the surface of a lithographic stone.  With the development of offset printing, photolithography was to become the main method of printing in the late 20th century.  Offset means that the ink is transferred on to a rubber roller from the plate, and then from the roller to the paper.

Chromolithograph
A term used to describe reproductive colour lithography in its heyday in the second half of the 19th century.  It cannot, however, be used to describe colour lithographs of a later date.

Autotype
Another name for carbon print which is a form of photograph creating tone through different thicknesses of darkened photographic gelatine.

Drypoint
A needle-like point scratches a printable mark into the copper plate.  Quicker than engraving, the end result looks like a quick stroke with a hard pencil.

Mezzotint
Discovered in the mid 17th century, it achieved a greater range of tones than engravings and etchings.  A printing plate is given the texture of sandpaper but made up of zigzagging lines.  The design is then smoothed away by such tools as scrapers and burnishers.

Aquatint
This technique, becoming popular after the 1770s, copied the effects of a watercolour wash.  A fine network of tone is created by the action of acid ‘biting’ to different depths on the printing plate.

Photogravure
This process predates photography.  It uses a light-sensitised, acid-resisting ground when etching a copper plate.  In its various forms it has provided reproductions of paintings and photographs with more detail and depth than all other printing processes.

Relief Halftone
A process print, or a print which has not been worked on manually by an artist.  Halftone works in a similar way to a line block, printing only pure black with white spaces.  It became the most common way of reproducing photographs until the 1960s.

Chromotypograph
It means colour printed from raised metal.  It is used to describe any colour relief prints in which some or all of the colours are printed in variable tone from metal blocks.

Copyright Worthing Museum and Art Gallery 2007

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