Lithographic Sketches: It is the End of the World! (frontispiece)

The museum's extensive collection of early lithography documents the development of the technique in Europe. Invented by a German, Alois Senefelder (1771-1834), in 1798 for commercial purposes, lithography was quickly adopted by artists. Lithography did not begin in France until 1816, however, when two workshops were established in Paris. By 1824 so many lithographs were being produced that a deluge of lithographic albums could end the world!