Rubbings

Pattern & Landscape

Frottage
Pencil or other drawing tool is used to make a rubbing over a textured surface. The drawing can be left as it is or used as the basis for further refinement. Brass rubbing and other forms of rubbing, while similar, are intended to reproduce an existing subject. ! ! !

It was developed by Ernst in 1925. Ernst was inspired by an ancient wooden oor where the grain of the planks had been accentuated by many years of scrubbing. The patterns of the graining suggested strange images to him. He captured these by laying sheets of paper on the oor and then rubbing over them with a soft pencil.!

Max Ernst (French, born Germany. 18911976) Forest and Sun Date: (1931) Medium: Graphite frottage on paper Dimensions: 7 7/8 x 11" (20.0 x 27.8 cm)

Max Ernst (French, born Germany. 18911976) Le chle fleurs givre (Iceflower Shawl and Gulf Stream) from Histoire Naturelle Author: introduction by Jean (Hans) Arp Date: 1926. (Reproduced frottages executed c. 1925). Medium: One from a portfolio of thirty-four collotypes after frottage Dimensions: sheet: 19 5/8 x 12 11/16" (49.8 x 32.3 cm)

Max Ernst (French, born Germany. 18911976) A Tout oublier (To Forget Everything) from Histoire Naturelle Author: introduction by Jean (Hans) Arp Date: 1926. (Reproduced frottages executed c. 1925). Medium: One from a portfolio of thirty-four collotypes after frottage Dimensions: sheet: 12 11/16 x 19 5/8" (32.3 x 49.8 cm)