(James Christopher le), an artist who invented a method of producing paintings by printing. He was a Frenchman of surprising vivacity and volatility; and Mr Walpole, who knew him, says, he had a head admirably mechanic, but was an universal projector. His method of printing paintings was performed by several mezzotinto plates for one piece, each expressing different shades and parts of the piece in different colours. In this manner he perfected many large pictures that were very tolerable copies of the best masters. He distributed those by a kind of lottery, but the subscribers did not find their prizes much valued. However, some heads coloured progressively, according to their several gradations, bear witness to the success and beauty of his invention. He had another merit to the public, with which few inventors begin; for he communicated his secret in a thin quarto, entitled Coloritto, or "The harmony of colouring in painting, reduced to mechanical practice, under easy precepts and infallible rules." In 1732, he also published, in French, a Treatise on ideal Beauty, which has been since translated into English; he afterwards set up a project for copying the cartoons in tapestry, and made some very fine drawings for that purpose, but did not meet with the success he expected. The affair therefore was dropped, and he disappeared.