Drawing Private collection of Jack and Beverly Wilgus The physionotrace was a mechanical instrument invented by Gilles-Louis Chrétien in 1784. It was used to trace a profile portrait and using a pantograph reduce it and engrave it onto a copper plate. Multiple prints could then me made of the portrait.
A copy of this illustration is included in Raymond Lécuyer, 1945, Histoire de la photographie, (Paris: Baschet) where the source of the original is given as the Bibliothèque Nationale de France.
