Max Ernst developed frottage by rubbing graphite over textured surfaces. He explored the technique in 1925, using textures such as wood grain to generate unexpected visual forms and imaginative suggestions.
The French word frottage means “rubbing.” Ernst placed paper over a surface and rubbed it with a pencil or similar medium, allowing the accidental pattern to appear. He then treated the result as a stimulus for images rather than as a simple copy of the original texture.
Ernst connected frottage with Surrealism’s interest in chance, unconscious association, and creative freedom. The method could make ordinary materials resemble forests, animals, figures, or geological landscapes. His 1926 book Histoire naturelle presented many works produced through related experiments.
Frottage is often confused with grattage, another technique associated with Ernst. In grattage, paint is scraped across a textured surface to expose or alter the layers beneath. Frottage specifically centers on transferring texture through rubbing.