State (printmaking)

In printmaking, a state is a different form of a print, caused by a deliberate and permanent change to a matrix such as a copper plate (for engravings etc.)

Some recent scholars refine the work of their predecessors, without wishing to create a confusing new numbering, by identifying states such as "IIa", "IVb" and so forth.

A great deal of work was done by art historians during the 19th and early 20th centuries, and most non-contemporary printmakers now have all the states of their prints catalogued.

New states in old master prints are often caused by the adding of inscriptions (signatures, dedications, publishers details, even a price) inside or below the image.

In the late 17th century, a distant relative of the Hopfers, David Funck, acquired 230 of the Hopfers' iron plates, and reprinted these under the title Operae Hopferianae, adding a somewhat crudely scratched number, known as the Funck number, to each one, thus creating a second state of the hitherto unretouched plates.

An example is Forest Marsh with Travellers on a Bank (1640s–1650s), an etching by Jacob van Ruisdael, where another hand later added clouds.

The Three Crosses, drypoint by Rembrandt . This is state III of 1653. State IV is believed to date from 1660, and looks very different, as Rembrandt greatly reworked and darkened the composition. State III is easy to identify, as only it has a visible signature. [ 1 ]
Girolamo Mocetto , Judith with the Head of Holofernes (1500/05), engraving after Andrea Mantegna , second state. In the first state the background is plain; the landscape of state II was probably added some years later.