Wilhelm KOTARBIŃSKI (1848-1921), Death of Petronius (Quo Vadis)

format: 25 x 19 cm, in light passe-partout,heliogravure (visible plate imprint), cardboard, signed l.d. "HSiemiradzki"
Under the composition, signature of the artistic lithography workshop " Meisenbach Riffarth & Co".

The graphic comes from a portfolio illustrating the works of Sienkiewicz published in 1898.
Georg Meisenbach was a German engraver and inventor of the autotype. In 1883 Meisenbach & Co. merged with Heinrich Riffarth & Co. to form Meisenbach Riffarth & Company, a well-known European graphic arts firm.

Heliogravure (gr.helio + gravure) - a type of graphic intaglio printing technique, similar to aquatint, involving the photographic transfer of an image onto a metal plate (usually copper) and etching with photosensitive emulsion so that the brightest areas create the shallowest recesses. Invented in 1879.Printing is done in a special hand press. Heliogravure, which was widespread in the 19th century, was later supplanted by rotogravure, as heliogravure is an expensive and very time-consuming method. Heliogravure is used only when it is necessary to create a small number of copies of very high quality.