DiotimosReading Desk

Art

Stipple engraving

graver au pointillé

Graver au pointillé means engraving an image through small dots rather than relying only on continuous lines.

From the book

The Gods Are Athirst

Anatole France · Diotimos Editions · 2026

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Meaning

Phrase.

Graver au pointillé means engraving an image through small dots rather than relying only on continuous lines. Early in the novel, Prud’hon supplies designs that Copia engraves in this technique; designer and engraver are distinct workers in a precarious artistic livelihood. At the end, Desmahis brings Blaise a stipple plate titled Suicide of Robespierre. Its technique describes production, while the roguish burin describes caricatural treatment. The print’s title does not settle the earlier scene’s uncertain account of Robespierre’s wound.

Places to read

  1. Chapter II, paragraph 10Frenchdes sujets que Copia gravait au pointillé: designs reproduced as stipple engravings. Prud’hon draws; Copia performs the named engraving process.
  2. Chapter XXIX, paragraph 2Frenchune planche qu’il venait de graver au pointillé: a plate he had just engraved in stipple. Desmahis brings a new anti-Robespierre image to Blaise.