Corot’s cliché-verre print, “The Little Sister”

Jean-Baptiste Camille Corot (1796–1875)

“La Petite Soeur” (The Little Sister), 1854, from the series of cliché verre prints, “Quarante Cliché-Glaces”, printed in the Le Garrec 1921 edition with Edmond Sagot’s ink stamp verso.

Point drawn cliché verre on fine light sensitive wove paper, signed by the artist in reverse (lower left)

Size: (sheet) 16.3 x 20.1 cm; (image borderline) 15 x 18.8 cm

Edition number 77 (of 150)

The British Museum offers the following description of this print;

“Plate 1: family group in field, the mother helping young child to walk; from a portfolio of forty mounted cliché-verre prints by five artists. 1854” (http://www.britishmuseum.org/research/publications/online_research_catalogues/search_object_details.aspx?orig=%2Fresearch%2Fonline_research_catalogues%2Frussian_icons%2Fcatalogue_of_russian_icons%2Fadvanced_search.aspx&output=Terms%2F!!%2FOR%2F!!%2F16837%2F!%2F%2F!%2Fdomestic+life%2F!%2F%2F!!%2F%2F!!!%2F&numpages=10&currentpage=5&partid=1&objectid=1341297)

Melot 41; Deteil 41 (Loys Delteil 1902, “Le Peintre-Graveur Illustré (XIXe et XXe siècles)”, 31 vols, Paris)

Condition: very good impression with traces of foxing at the edges (beyond the image borderline) otherwise in excellent condition. There is the Edmond Sagot verification stamp of authenticity (verso) and the edition number “77/150” hand-inscribed in pencil above the stamp.

I am selling this original print by Corot—one of the most famous artists of the 19th century—for a total cost of AU$1846 (currently US$1330.58/EUR1275.59/GBP1085.45 at the time of this listing) including postage and handling to anywhere in the world.

If you are interested in purchasing this exceedingly rare cliché verre print (i.e. a drawing inscribed through an opaque emulsion applied to a glass plate that is then placed over a sheet of light sensitive paper and exposed original glass print using a photographic process on light please contact me (oz_jim@printsandprinciples.com) and I will send you a PayPal invoice to make the payment easy.

This print has been sold

One of the seductive attributes of making cliché-verre prints (i.e. “a print made by placing photographic paper beneath a glass plate on which a design has been scratched through a coating of an opaque substance and then exposing it to light” [https://www.britannica.com/art/cliche-verre]) is the relative ease with which an inscribing instrument can glide over the glass plate. Corot is clearly liberated by the process, as his line work in this print is freely laid. Corot’s approach to achieving tonal variation using this process is the same that employed by pen-and-ink artists who only use full-strength ink: Corot compacts his line work in areas of shadow and varies the amount of white paper left between each stroke to represent different intensities of light.

Regarding the “Quarante Cliché-Glaces” series of cliché verre prints that this exceedingly rare print was extracted, the curator of the British Museum offers the following information:

“From a portfolio of forty individually mounted cliché-verre prints by Corot, Daubigny, Delacroix, Millet and Rousseau, printed from plates held in the collection of M. Cuvelier (Paris: Maurice Le Garrec, 1921); with title page, list of plates and 'avertissement', each mount and title page stamped with the series number in blue ink; edition 8/150. The verso of each print also bears a stamp, possibly that of the Edmond Sagot studio (the title page states that Le Garrec was the successor to Sagot). The department also holds a cliché-verre plate by Corot ( ) which was donated by M. Cuvelier after the printing of this series.” (http://www.britishmuseum.org/research/collection_online/collection_object_details.aspx?objectId=1341297&partId=1&searchText=1922,0410.213&page=1).