Cliché verre

As he explained when sending a copy of the windmill (illustrated), his drawing was too poor; in fact it was this that had spurred him to investigate photography.

[11] Two months after this two Englishmen announced, again to the Royal Society, effectively the same process as their own invention, and there was a dispute, but in the end it was not taken to court.

[12] The more productive French involvement in the 1850s began with a group in Arras consisting of the artist Constant Dutilleux, the photographer Adalbert Cuvelier, and L. Grandguillaume, a teacher of drawing.

Beginning with 17 plates in 1862, he used etching techniques, such as a roulette to produce dotted areas for a tonal effect, and also brushwork.

These include Eugène Delacroix (1854, the single image illustrated below),[15] Paul Klee (1902), Man Ray (1917), Picasso (altering normal photographic negatives taken by others), Max Ernst (1931), and Brassai (1930s).

In the 1940s the American photographer Henry Holmes Smith innovated by dripping a thick corn syrup onto the plate, letting it dry and enlarging the images.

By this stage most artists were using the technique for abstract work, often including effects of randomness in the spirit of drip painting.

[17] Some contemporary artists have developed techniques for achieving a variety of line, tone, texture and colour by experimenting with film, frosted Mylar, paint and inks and a wide assortment of tools for painting, etching, scratching, rubbing and daubing.

[18] An obvious English translation of cliché verre is "glass print", but this is usually avoided because the term has another meaning.