[Physionotrace]

Chrétien, Gilles-Louis, 1754-1811 · 1790

"The physionotrace was an early precursor to the camera, using a pantograph to trace the features which were recorded onto a plate by an etching needle. This yielded a plate that could be printed from. This physionotrace, executed by the inventor [Chrétien] and his most frequent collaborator [Fouquet], is a good example of this early pre-photographic intaglio printing method and an example of one of the methods used to mechanically transpose the image to a printing plate."--Hanson Collection catalog, p. 5