AUGUSTE ALLONGÉ

Description

n Le Fusain, Allongé explained how to make and use charcoal, simple pieces of burnt wood made from willow or charcoal. As a medium, charcoal is easy to draw with and produces a wide range of values. However it is also both extremely friable and highly volatile as, without fixative, it does not adhere well to paper. Allongé exploited all the various properties of charcoal to develop his compositions: crumbly, he blended it to create a broad, homogeneous tones; volatile, he removed and erased it to create luminous effects. In the chapter of his treatise on the execution of charcoal drawings, Allongé specified that he used numerous tools to work with the material. He rubbed it with softened animal hides to obtain a very finely toned sky. It was with bread crumbs “well kneaded and rolled into balls” that he removed the charcoal from the sky or bodies of water to create highlights. To obtain half-tone details, the artist used scrapers with triangular tips that removed precise quantities of charcoal from masses of tone. Details like rocks, grass or reeds often appear as if chiseled out of the background.