In the late 18th century, British artists embraced the medium of aquatint for its ability to produce prints with rich and varied tones that became even more striking with the addition of color. At the same time, the expanding purview of the British empire created a market for images of distant places. Book publishers seized on these two trends and began producing travel books illustrated with aquatint prints of Indian cave temples, Chinese waterways, African villages, and more. This talk examines how the medium of aquatint shaped the message of British imperialism. By remaking the world in aquatint, traveling artists and printmakers simultaneously remade what it meant to be British.

The lecture will be presented at 5:30pm on January 30th in Room 250 of the James Branch Cabell Library, 901 Park Ave. This lecture is free and open to the public.