The Politics of Process Mezzotint: Jacob Christoff Le Blon’s Reputation, 1700–89

Jacob Christoff Le Blon invented translucent printing inks, which allowed for optical mixing, and a way to use them with three or more mezzotint plates to reproduce all ‘natural colours’. His revolutionary approach to colour printing in the 1700s is widely celebrated and considered a precursor to today’s CMYK colour system. But his career was a series of high-risk ventures, with each success followed by devastating failure and a fresh start, often abroad. His workshop’s direct legacy ended just 40 years after his death, after his student Jacques-Fabien Gautier-Dagoty tried to destroy his reputation and his last student’s students stopped producing trichomatic mezzotints. This essay assesses the reception of Le Blon’s printing techniques from his research and experimentation until he invented his method of optically mixing colour separations in 1710 in Amsterdam, through his careers in London and Paris until his death in 1741. It ends with the production of the final material in the direct legacy of his workshops around 1790. It draws on Le Blon’s writings, advertisements, and Gautier-Dagoty’s public correspondence.