A technical dictionary of printmaking, André Béguin.

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Brush etching
Brush etching is a metal intaglio process which directly preceded aquatint*. Generally speaking it can be considered part of etching. It could be said that brush etching encompasses all of the aquatint processes as opposed to line work. This opposition is much the same as that existing between line drawings and wash drawings. Wash drawings are ink drawings which are usually done with diluted India ink or water colour. The artist manages to create half tones and tints as well as shadows by superimposing layers of colour while the white background of the paper provides the luminosity. Brush etching seeks the same effects as wash drawing, however, it can also be combined with other etching techniques as well as with line work.
Brush etching should be distinguished from aquatint even though the two techniques were not distinguished at the beginning on account of the similar results achieved. In fact it is often very difficult to tell which one of the two techniques was first used by etchers. Nevertheless it is possible to classify as aquatints all of those prints whose tones* are obtained by means of a granulated surface* (a surface obtained by depositing a qrain*) whereas we will consider a brush etching those whose tones are obtained in other ways. Usually the tones of brush etchings are obtained by directly corroding the plate surface with a more or less watered down solution of mordant. Despite these apparent differences the two techniques are often confused in France where they are referred to as "aquatinte ou gravure au lavis" (aquatint or brush etching).
Brush etching was the result of research clone in the 18th century to find a means of reproducing paintings and colour* wash drawings as perfectly as possible. The concern for "manners", the hall mark of that century, can be regarded as a turning point in the art of printmaking both in terms of the spirit in which they were done and in terms of the techniques used. The general tendency was to move closer to "Art", and although the engraver remained an artisan he had to strive to imitate painters and drawers by imitating the tints, the tones, and the colours of nature. It must not be forgotten that in the 18th century the reproduction of paintings and drawings of masters was a necessity bolstered by the taste for originals and the financial hurdles involved in buying them. Due to both their taste and their economic constraints the new, rich, and cultivated bourgeois clientele provided a market for a half way solution between the old fashioned print and the masterpiece. The engravers worked so well to supply this market that the prints themselves became collector's items and were, at times, even sold as drawings [*imitations]. It is not at all sure that this need for artisanal work to identify with art should be seen as a positive development, especially when printmaking became considered a minor art as compared to the Fine Arts. The positive side of this need to imitate Art was that the techniques invented for imitative purposes actually enriched the craft. On the other hand printmakers were hardly justified in their inferiority complex due to the exigencies and limits of their craft.
The search for wash effects in prints certainly began at a very early date. Bartsch, in his book "Le peintre Graveur", mentions two prints by the German engraver Daniel Hopfer (about 1470-1536) who achieved shadows "which took like wash drawings done with Indian ink". One may also mention the mixed process which consists in printing tints obtained with various wood* blocks onto etched lines in the chiaroscuro* manner. The first systematic attemps to use the technique of brush etching resulted in the portraits of Cromwell and of Queen Christina of Sweden made by Jan Van de Velde (1593-1641). Nonetheless François-Philippe Charpentier (1731-1817) announced in the "Avant-Coureur" on the 10th of July 1762 that he was the first to have engraved (etched) in the "lavis manner" (wash manner) but this may have been already a kind of aquatint. Another engraver, G.]anssen, of Utrecht, had also used a kind of brush etching technique between 1680 and 1722 which Jean-Charles François (the inventor of the crayon* manner) used before the year 1758. In 1759 Jean-Baptiste Le Prince, a painter, drawer, and engraver, whose aim it was to reproduce his highly succesful sepia drawings, invented a method of reproducing them and presented his discoveries to the Royal Academy of Painting (Paris) in a paper entitled "Plan du Traité de la gravure au lavis" (Outline of a Treatise on Engraving in the Wash Manner). Although he called it such it was already a fullfledged aquatint technique.

TECHNIQUE OF BRUSH ETCHING

Brush etching can be done in a variety of ways, most of which are listed under granulated surface. The object of this method is to retain ink on the plate without engraving lines but rather by "unpolishing" the plate more or less deeply and by making a mat surface that can go so far as to be actually granulated. Such a surface and due to its characteristics causes the ink to spread thus bringing about shades of colour rather than lines. In fact the wearing down of the plate with fine abrasive* paper or by attacking it with a mordant allows for traces of ink to be caught and retained by the plate.
The technique that is closest to wash drawings in terms of both technique and the end result is the direct biting of the plate with an acid applied with a brush. In this method the brush is used to spread the acid and to work in exactly the same way as a brush is used to make a wash drawing with ink.
The plate must be well scoured before applying the mordant [ * scouring]. The image made on the plate may be spontaneous and improvised or then it may be sketched with very light etched lines or with lightly drawn drypoint. Another way of sketching is to stop out parts of the plate using stopping out varnish, a grease pencil, a lithographic crayon, acrylic paints, etc. The most often used mordant in brush etching is pure nitric acid at a concentration of 40°B which may be diluted with water. The acid attacks the plate surface and "unpolishes" the metal [ * attacking agents]. This mat finish can be accentuated by superimposing coats of mordant and by differenciating the results by using different concentrations. The stopping out mentioned above may also vary the results obtained on the plate.
This kind of work should be done near a sink with running water because it is essential that the effects of the mordant be stopped sharply, once the desired result has been achieved, by washing the p}ate with plenty of water. Satisfactory results in brush etching depend, as is the case of wash drawing, upon nuances and subtleties which are often very delicate indeed. Because of this it is difficult to even indicate biting time. In practise this technique calls for personal experience as well as quality of drawing.
The acid applied with the brush provokes a reaction on the plate which is in function of the concentration of the mordant and the amount of time it is left to bite. It is quite easy to experiment by putting a few drops of mordant, each at a different concentration, onto a plate and letting them bite. One may also notice the effect of time by much the same means.
It is only by printing that the results obtained will be obvious. On the other hand a practiced etcher can judge the results without having recourse to printing and he can use the acid as if it were an ink.
Other mordants can be used in brush etching such as iron perchioride, whose effects can be well controlled because it blackens the plate as of the beginning of the biting process [* attacking agents (salts), mordant]. Other mordants used are the honey* and sulphur* ones. Powdered sulphur is mixed with oil until the consistency of a paste is reached. Spread this paste in successive layers using a brush. This sulphur paste will attack copper plates and result in a "fresh and suave tone" (Lalanne). In any case, all of these techniques are used to bring about various tints rather than blacks even though the latter can be achieved with high concentrations or a series of superimpositions. The whites achieved by stopping out the plate complete the range of "colour" in brush etching. Brush etching may also be supplemented with other etching techniques or even mechanical ones (with a roulette*, for example). Be careful, however, not to destroy the characteristics of brush etching by a brutal etching technique which would be in contradiction with the velvety texture of the wash tints achieved by brush etching.

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