Cliché Verre, 1855 [printed 1921]. Delteil 57, Melot 57. Second State of two, with the signature of Corot in reverse, lower left. 12 1/4 x 16 1/4 inches, 310x415 mm. (sheet), full margins. Some losses at the sheet edges, not affecting the image, else fine.
Cliché-verre is a graphic art technique that combines aspects of photography and printmaking. Until the twentieth century, it had an unsettled nomenclature that awkwardly attempted to bridge these mediums and included various knotty terms like “heliographic drawing” (dessin héliographique) and “photographic autography” (autographie photographique). In the most common, “drawn” method of cliché-verre that Corot employed, a transparent glass plate is covered with an opaque coating, such as collodion. As with copperplate etching, an artist draws through this coating with a stylus, scratching or flecking it off the surface. Once the composition is complete, the plate is a photographic negative; light shines through only the transparent areas of the plate onto light-sensitive paper, creating a photographic image. No camera is required.
Corot was an enthusiastic practitioner of the technique, producing about 65 images from the 1850s to the 1870s and pioneering a spirited but brief efflorescence of cliché-verre making in France. Eugène Delacroix, Théodore Rousseau, Jean-François Millet, and numerous others tried their hands at the newfangled technique, though none besides Corot found it to be a sustaining medium for their work.
Cliché Verre, 1855 [printed 1921]. Delteil 57, Melot 57. Second State of two, with the signature of Corot in reverse, lower left. 12 1/4 x 16 1/4 inches, 310x415 mm. (sheet), full margins. Some losses at the sheet edges, not affecting the image, else fine.
Cliché-verre is a graphic art technique that combines aspects of photography and printmaking. Until the twentieth century, it had an unsettled nomenclature that awkwardly attempted to bridge these mediums and included various knotty terms like “heliographic drawing” (dessin héliographique) and “photographic autography” (autographie photographique). In the most common, “drawn” method of cliché-verre that Corot employed, a transparent glass plate is covered with an opaque coating, such as collodion. As with copperplate etching, an artist draws through this coating with a stylus, scratching or flecking it off the surface. Once the composition is complete, the plate is a photographic negative; light shines through only the transparent areas of the plate onto light-sensitive paper, creating a photographic image. No camera is required.
Corot was an enthusiastic practitioner of the technique, producing about 65 images from the 1850s to the 1870s and pioneering a spirited but brief efflorescence of cliché-verre making in France. Eugène Delacroix, Théodore Rousseau, Jean-François Millet, and numerous others tried their hands at the newfangled technique, though none besides Corot found it to be a sustaining medium for their work.