Specimens of Polyautography: Landscape with an Oak Tree

The first portfolio of artists’ lithographs was published in 1803, just five years after Alois Senefelder invented the medium in Munich in 1798. Entitled Specimens of Polyautography, the publication included twelve lithographs by British, French, German, and Swiss artists. Figures contemplating the landscape and atmospheric tree studies were dominant subjects among these early pen lithographs.