This early example of a lithographic print was produced shortly after the medium was invented. Alois Senefelder, a German playwright and composer, created lithography in 1798 while trying to develop an affordable process for printing his plays. Within a decade, artists were exploring the potentials of the medium.
Here, Franz Joseph Leopold has composed his quiet scene in a precise, linear style. Tiny lines rendered in lithographic ink with a fine-tipped pen compose the dense foliage, jagged rock faces, flowing water, and sunlit clouds of the landscape.