Froissage vs Frottage: Differences, History and Uses

Froissage vs frottage is one of the most common points of confusion in art classes, partly because the French words look alike and partly because both techniques turn chance textures into pictures. The difference is simple once you see it: frottage rubs a texture onto paper, froissage crumples a texture into paper.

The two words

• Frottage comes from the French frotter, to rub. Tate defines it as the technique of taking a rubbing from an uneven surface to form the basis of a work of art.
• Froissage comes from froisser, to crumple or crease. See what is froissage for the full definition.

Side-by-side comparison

	Frottage	Froissage
Action	Rubbing over paper laid on a texture	Crumpling and flattening the paper
Source of the pattern	An outside surface: wood, leaves, coins, fabric	The paper’s own creases
Typical media	Soft pencil, graphite, wax crayon, charcoal	Diluted ink, watercolour, sometimes pastel
Water needed	No	Usually
Repeatable	Yes, the same surface gives similar rubbings	No, every crumple is different
Key artist	Max Ernst, from 1925	Ladislav Novák, from around 1964
Result	Fine, regular texture (grain, veins, weave)	Irregular network of lines and facets

Frottage: Max Ernst’s discovery

Tate tells the story: in 1925 Max Ernst was struck by an old wooden floor whose grain had been accentuated by years of scrubbing. The patterns suggested strange images to him, so he laid paper on the floor and rubbed over it with a soft pencil. He went on to rub leaves, string, fabric and other textures, building them into imaginary forests and creatures, and published a series of these drawings in 1926 as Histoire Naturelle.

Ernst soon transferred the idea to oil painting as grattage: a canvas coated in paint is laid over a textured object and the paint scraped away. Both techniques gave the Surrealists a way to produce images partly outside conscious control, an idea explained in our page on surrealist art techniques.

Froissage: the paper as its own texture

Froissage applies the same logic but removes the outside object. The Czech artist Ladislav Novák, who developed it around 1964, crumpled a sheet, opened it out and drew into the creases with ink and watercolour. Nothing external is recorded; the pattern is a record of the sheet’s own history of being crushed. Read about the artist in Ladislav Novák and froissage.

What the results look like

Frottage results are usually crisp and descriptive. A rubbing of wood looks like wood grain, a rubbing of a leaf shows its veins. The fun lies in recontextualising those textures, for example turning wood grain into a feather.

Froissage results are more abstract and fractured. Creases form a network of straight and slightly curved lines meeting at angles, like a map of fields, cracked earth or a mountain range. Colour gathers in the creases so the network reads as dark lines on a lighter ground. The images artists find are often figures and faces broken into facets.

When to use each

Choose frottage when:

• You want recognisable textures from the real world, such as bark, coins or lace.
• You are working without water or with very young children.
• You want to repeat a texture several times in one work.

Choose froissage when:

• You want an unpredictable network of lines to suggest a subject.
• You are working with watercolour or ink washes.
• You want each piece to be unique.

Getting good results with frottage

Frottage looks simple, but a few habits make the difference between a faint grey smudge and a crisp, readable texture:

• Use thin paper. Printer paper, newsprint or layout paper picks up far more detail than heavy cartridge paper.
• Use the side of a soft medium. A peeled wax crayon, a graphite stick or a 4B-8B pencil held flat touches only the raised parts of the surface, which is what forms the image.
• Rub in one direction. Short strokes in a single direction keep edges sharp; scribbling back and forth blurs them.
• Hold the paper still. Tape it down or press firmly with your free hand, because any slip doubles the texture.
• Collect before you compose. Make a sheet of test rubbings first, then look at them in different orientations before deciding what each texture could become.

Ernst’s own practice shows the last point well: according to Tate, the rubbings of an old wooden floor suggested forests peopled with bird-like creatures, and he then developed those suggestions into finished drawings. Our full guide to the frottage art technique covers materials, layering, interpretation and classroom use step by step, while this page focuses on the comparison.

Combining the two

The techniques mix well. Crumple and flatten a sheet, then lay it over a textured surface and rub it lightly with the side of a pencil. Ridges pick up the rubbing, hollows stay pale, and the crease network sits over the texture. You can also make a frottage first, then crumple the sheet and wash it with ink.

For full instructions, follow our step-by-step froissage guide. If you are teaching the difference, the froissage lesson plan includes a side-by-side frottage exercise. Other relatives of froissage, including grattage and decalcomania, are compared in our history of froissage.