Art Institute of Chicago

Wooded Mountain Landscape with a Small Waterfall and Pathway

Franz Joseph Leopold

Date

1805

Medium

Lithograph in black on white wove paper

Culture

Germany

Department

Prints and Drawings

Institution

Art Institute of Chicago

This early example of a lithographic print was produced shortly after the medium was invented. Alois Senefelder, a German playwright and composer, created lithography in 1798 while trying to develop an affordable process for printing his plays. Within a decade, artists were exploring the potentials of the medium. Here, Franz Joseph Leopold has composed his quiet scene in a precise, linear style. Tiny lines rendered in lithographic ink with a fine-tipped pen compose the dense foliage, jagged rock faces, flowing water, and sunlit clouds of the landscape.

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