Silverpoint
A method of drawing with a pen-like tool with a fine silver tip onto paper prepared with a ground covered in a tinted layer. Fragments of metal are deposited on the surface giving very delicate silvery-grey lines and a soft clarity not found in other drawing media. Over time the silver tarnishes and the lines take on more definition. The technique was widely used in the fifteenth century and is still used today.
Dugald Sutherland MacColl
by Alphonse Legros
1897
NPG 4857
May Morris
by William Rothenstein
1897
NPG 3049
Edward Thomas
by John Laviers Wheatley
1916
NPG 4459
Sir David Piper
by John Ralph Merton
1983-1984
NPG 5773