Ludwig von Siegen

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Ludwig von Siegen (c. March 1609 – c. 1680) was a German soldier and amateur engraver who invented mezzotint, a printmaking method that can create very soft shading and a full range of tones.

Siegen came from an aristocratic family. He was likely born near Cologne and baptized there in March 1609. His mother died early, and his father moved to Holland because of his Calvinist beliefs. Ludwig stayed with his stepmother’s family in Holland to avoid the dangers of the Thirty Years War.

He was educated in Hesse-Kassel, where his father was an adviser to the Landgrave. Ludwig attended a school for young nobles and studied law for a time. In 1627 his father moved back to Holland, and Ludwig spent years with different employers and in military life during the war years.

By 1641 Siegen had converted to Catholicism and moved to Amsterdam. There he began to work on a new printmaking technique. In 1642 he produced the first known mezzotint engraving, a portrait of Amalia Elisabeth, the Regent of Hesse-Kassel. He claimed that he had invented the method. Mezzotint works by roughening a metal plate with many tiny teeth and then building up tones, allowing very subtle gradations of light and dark.

Siegen created several famous portraits in mezzotint, including Elizabeth of Bohemia, William II of Orange and his wife, and a portrait of Ferdinand III from memory. He left Amsterdam in 1644 and served in various rulers’ armies, eventually retiring at Wolfenbüttel.

Most records after this concern lawsuits about estates, with the last notice in 1676. Siegen’s invention spread partly through his famous cousin Prince Rupert of the Rhine, who learned of the method around 1654 and helped bring it to England, where it was later described to John Evelyn in 1662. Another early adopter in Amsterdam was Wallerant Vaillant.

In short, Ludwig von Siegen was a soldier-artist who pioneered mezzotint, a technique that opened up new possibilities for tonal engraving and influenced printmaking in Europe.