Drawing techniques: the Claude Glass

<div rel="vamembed" class="figure left quart-w"> <a href="#" rel="pop"><img src="/vamembed/media/versions/uploads/rx_images/image/5001-6000/5466-large_custom_130x130_3004870187.jpg" alt="Attributed to Claude Lorrain (1600-1682) Landscape scenes Pen and wash" /></a>
<p title="Click to edit" id="image_caption" class="figcaption editable">Attributed to Claude Lorrain (1600-1682) Landscape scenes Pen and wash</p> </div>
<div rel="vamembed" class="figure left quart-w"> <a href="#" rel="pop"><img src="/vamembed/media/versions/uploads/rx_images/image/5001-6000/5470-large_croppedthumbnail.jpg" alt="Claude Glass, Manufactured in England, 18th century" /></a>
<p title="Click to edit" id="image_caption" class="figcaption editable">Claude Glass, Manufactured in England, 18th century</p> </div>
<div rel="vamembed" class="figure right quart-w"> <a href="#" rel="pop"><img src="/vamembed/media/versions/uploads/rx_images/image/5001-6000/5478-large_croppedthumbnail.jpg" alt="The Reverend William Gilpin (1724-1804) View from the bank of a river Watercolour" /></a>
<p title="Click to edit" id="image_caption" class="figcaption editable">The Reverend William Gilpin (1724-1804) View from the bank of a river Watercolour</p> </div>
<div rel="vamembed" class="figure right quart-w"> <a href="#" rel="pop"><img src="/vamembed/media/versions/uploads/rx_images/image/5001-6000/5493-large_croppedthumbnail.jpg" alt="Robert Macpherson (1811-1872) Convent of San Cosimato Late 1850s Photograph: albumen print from dry collodion negative" /></a>
<p title="Click to edit" id="image_caption" class="figcaption editable">Robert Macpherson (1811-1872) Convent of San Cosimato Late 1850s Photograph: albumen print from dry collodion negative</p> </div>
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<p>Claude Lorrain (1600-82) was a leading 17th-century landscape painter who worked in Rome and became famous for drawings and paintings displaying a subtle gradation of tones. His work became immensely popular in England in the 18th century. A Claude glass is a slightly convex tinted mirror, which was supposed to help artists produce works of art similar to those of Claude.</p>
<p>The Reverend William Gilpin, an amateur artist, advocated the use of a Claude glass saying, &#39;they give the object of nature a soft, mellow tinge like the colouring of that Master&#39;. The convex nature of the mirror shaped a large scene into a neat view, and the tinting (which was often sepia or brown) helped artists to see the relative tonal values of the view.</p>
<p>Many 18th-century artists and landscape theorists were interested in the effects of Claude glasses. They were widely used by tourists and amateur artists.</p>