MEZZOTINT

Over the course of her career, Rothe sold over 30,000 mezzotints. Her highly detailed mezzotints focused on surreal landscapes, intricately rendered horses, and graceful dancers. Rothe started all her prints by sketching a simple drawing directly onto the plate with a drypoint tool. She used a rocker to develop the background, rolling and rocking it side to side and piercing the plate with tiny holes for the ink. Using a drypoint tool she further developed the fine details and figures of the drawing. Rothe spent approximately 500 hours working on each plate.

A master of the mezzotint, Rothe expanded its possibilities to achieve stunning transparencies and an unprecedented variety of tonalities. By discovering a way to mix all colors in the same plate, from the darkest to the lightest, and hand-wiping colors into one another, she was able to create highlights, hues, and tones impossible to get when inking each color separately.