Karel Klíč

1841-1926 Czech

Invented photogravure, mastered illustration

Karel Václav Klíč was a Czech painter, photographer, early comics artist, caricaturist, lithographer and illustrator. He was one of the inventors of photogravure (heliogravura in Czech). Klíč had such artistic talent that he was admitted into the Art Academy in Prague at the age of 14. For ridiculing school officials he was soon expelled, but eventually finished the school in 1862. Klíč worked as a photographer, caricaturist and illustrator in Brno, Budapest and Vienna, all the time trying to improve the technology of picture reproduction. During a long night in 1877, while working with zinc relief etching, he discovered, by chance, a process leading to photogravure. He further improved the process in 1890, when working in England.

Artworks by this artist (100 total)

Bilderbuch für Hagestolze Pl.065 1870s
Bilderbuch für Hagestolze Pl.021 1870s
Bilderbuch für Hagestolze Pl.062 1870s
Bilderbuch für Hagestolze Pl.087 1870s
Bilderbuch für Hagestolze Pl.074 1870s
Bilderbuch für Hagestolze Pl.010 1870s
Bilderbuch für Hagestolze Pl.038 1870s
Bilderbuch für Hagestolze Pl.037 1870s
Bilderbuch für Hagestolze Pl.069 1870s
Bilderbuch für Hagestolze Pl.053 1870s
Bilderbuch für Hagestolze Pl.086 1870s
Bilderbuch für Hagestolze Pl.060 1870s
Bilderbuch für Hagestolze Pl.035 1870s
Bilderbuch für Hagestolze Pl.002 1870s
Bilderbuch für Hagestolze Pl.030 1870s
Bilderbuch für Hagestolze Pl.049 1870s
Bilderbuch für Hagestolze Pl.056 1870s
Bilderbuch für Hagestolze Pl.068 1870s
Bilderbuch für Hagestolze Pl.079 1870s
Bilderbuch für Hagestolze Pl.083 1870s