Artist's proof

An artist's proof is, at least in theory, an impression of a print taken in the printmaking process to see the current printing state of a plate while the plate (or stone, or woodblock) is being worked on by the artist. A proof may show a clearly incomplete image, often called a working proof or trial impression, but in modern practice is usually used to describe an impression of the finished work that is identical to the numbered copies. There can also be printer's proofs which are taken for the printer to see how the image is printing, or are final impressions the printer is allowed to keep; but normally the term "artist's proof" would cover both cases.

Artist's proofs are not included in the count of a limited edition, and sometimes the number of artist's proofs, which belong to the artist, can be twenty or more. By convention, the artist is not supposed to sell these at once.

The term "proof" is generally, but not consistently, applied only to prints from the late eighteenth-century onwards, beginning with the English mezzotinters, who began the practice of issuing small editions of proofs for collectors, often before the "lettering" or inscription below the image was added. The practices of signing or numbering impressions in the main edition had not begun, and in the absence of this, it is normally only when the image is clearly different from the final form that the term proof has any meaning.

In old master prints, a proof will be described as belonging to a different state of the print. States are numbered I, II, III etc., in the sequence they were produced, which can normally be determined.

For example, Rembrandt, who had his own printing-press and printed at least the earliest copies of his etchings himself, was a great taker of proofs, but these are normally described as different states - his record was nine for one etching, although this involved returning to an older print he had sold many copies of, and largely reworking it.

But the term proof can be used in the case of a clear working proof of an old master print, like the two impressions of Albrecht Dürer's Adam and Eve (1504, British Museum and Albertina, Vienna) which show the figures largely finished but the background with only the main outlines lightly done.

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Wikipedia