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Description

Crayon-manner engraving was introduced in France around 1750 by Jean-Charles François. A hard-edged and linear medium, the lines created by engraving could not approximate the soft and diffused contours produced as chalk and graphite are drawn across the surface of paper. This new process, utilizing roulette wheels and punches to achieve a variegated and broken line more like drawing media, was perfected by Demarteau and Louis-Marin Bonnet—both of whom claimed the technique as their own creation. As more artists adopted the medium of crayon-manner engraving, additional tools were created, some of which were derived from goldsmiths’ tools. Just at the time when important collections of drawings, such as the Crozat collection, were being formed, crayon-manner engraving allowed these collections, and other drawings by modern masters such as Boucher, to be recreated in a print medium that that could be disseminated to a wide audience.
Exhibition label copy from "Eighteenth Century French Prints and Drawings," February 1 - May 4, 2003 by Curator Carole McNamara