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on February 15, 1837, in London, England. Assumed
to have received his photographic education from his
father, Francis studied mining and metallurgy in London
and Germany from the mid to late 1850s in preparation
for his career as an assayer. In 1859 the Master of the
Royal Mint appointed him the Assayer for the Colony
of British Columbia, Canada. Due to the cost, Claudet’s
photographic equipment followed him to British Co-
lumbia, which he reached on February 10, 1860. While
awaiting the completion of his work buildings and liv-
ing quarters in New Westminster, he lived in Victoria
(Colony of Vancouver Island) and traveled to various
points in both colonies, partly on board HMS Satellite,
the vessel on which Lieutenant Richard Roche served.
After Claudet received his photographic kit by the end
of summer 1860, he busied himself, in his spare time,
with taking photographs of New Westminster and its
residents, as well as various points he visited on offi -
cial duties. He knew other professional photographers,
including Frederick Dally (Victoria), David Withrow
(New Westminster and Moodyville), and possibly
Richard and Hannah Maynard, who were on the same
crowded vessel Claudet took back from San Francisco
in 1862 when he purchased coin-minting equipment.
Claudet competed with George Robinson Fardon at
the London International Exhibition (1862). At least
two of Claudet’s photographs were used for engravings
published in the Illustrated London News (May 12,
1866). Claudet worked in a variety of other civil service
and judicial capacities until he was laid off in January
- He returned to England with his family, bitterly
disappointed at his treatment after 13 years service. He
continued to work in the assay business, but does not
appear to have pursued his interest in photography. He
died in London, England, on March 13, 1906. Although
Claudet’s wet plate negatives have not been located,
family papers, including photograph albums, were pur-
chased by the British Columbia Archives in 1946 from
a son who had returned to settle in the province. The
University of British Columbia Library also preserves a
number of Francis George Claudet photographs.
David Mattison
CLICHÉ-VERRE
Essentially a hybrid of printmaking and photography,
cliché verre technique uses neither ink nor camera to
produce, through photographic chemistry, hand-drawn
or composed images on paper. The process involves
two basic steps. First, a transparent glass plate (or other
transparent surface) is coated with an opaque substance
such as collodion, ink dusted with powdered white lead
or an oil-based pigment. Using a sharp instrument, the
artist draws a design into this matrix. The plate, which
acts as a hand-drawn negative, is placed into contact
with a light sensitive sheet of paper and exposed to
light, which passes through the drawn areas of the glass
plate but is absorbed by the opaque areas. The paper,
darkening in proportion to the amount of light received,
forms a positive, laterally reversed print. The print is
then washed, fi xed, and dried. Modern cliché-verre are
often made using transparent plastic or fi lm, rather than
glass. Nineteenth-century cliché-verres, usually made
with either salted or albumen paper, generally exhibit
light brown tones while twentieth-century prints can
exhibit a range of tones and colors. Cliché-verre (“glass
negative”) is the most common term for the process.
Other terms include cliché-glace, dessin héliographique,
autographie photographique, photogenic etching, etch-
ing on glass, autograph etching, and glass print.
The cliché-verre process was introduced to the public
in 1839 by three English artists, James Tibbits Willmore,
William Havell and his brother James Frederick Havell.
Experienced printmakers, the trio was inspired by Wil-
liam Henry Fox Talbot’s experiments with the camera-
less “photogenic drawing” process in which objects or
designs were placed in direct contact with a sensitized
paper and exposed to light to produce a negative image.
In March 1839, two months after Talbot gave his reportCLICHÉ-VERRE
Carot, Jean Baptiste Camille. L’Embuscade.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Purchase, The Horace W.
Goldsmith Foundation Gift, 1991 (1991.1072) Image © The
Metropolitan Museum of Art.