AloisSenefelder (6 November 1771, Prague – 26 February 1834, Munich) was an Austrian actor and playwright who invented the printing technique of lithography in 1798.
Senefelder was decorated by King Maximilian Joseph of Bavaria and a statue of him stands in the town of Solnhofen, where lithographic stone is still quarried.
AloisSenefelder's contribution ranks alongside William Ged's invention of stereotyping, Friedrich Koenig's steam press and Ottmar Mergenthaler's linotype machine in its innovative effect, and it is fitting that Senefelder lived to see his process become widely adopted both for art printmaking and as the dominant method of pictorial reproduction in the printing industry.
Senefelder took a position with a printer and publisher and later purchased his own press as he was anxious to print and publish his own works.
Senefelder went on to make numerous improvements to his "chemical" printing process and was later awarded the gold medal by the Society of Encouragement of England, the highest medal of the Polytechnische Verein fur Baiern, the gold honorary medal of the order for Civilverdienst of the Bavarian Crown together with many other prizes.
Senefelder also developed a system of spreading a solution of stone over the surface of card or paper so that this could be treated as a "plate".
Feeds |
Contact