Wallerant Vaillant

In 1654 Vaillant met Prince Rupert of the Rhine, a soldier and cousin of the English king who carried around a printmaking secret. The technique was mezzotint, invented about twelve years earlier by another soldier, Ludwig von Siegen, and almost nobody was using it. Instead of cutting lines into a plate, you roughen the whole surface until it would print solid black, then scrape it smooth where you want light. It gives soft grey tone rather than hatching, which is exactly what a portrait wants. Vaillant took it up and became the first person to work in mezzotint professionally, turning out portrait after portrait from Amsterdam. He painted in oils as well, mostly portraits and a few pictures of children drawing, and taught his younger brothers the print trade. Around 200 of his mezzotints survive.