photography of works of art

The graphic reproduction of works of art has a long and diverse history. Photography followed a tradition in which the depiction of the fine and decorative arts bestows some kudos on the reprographic processes used. At the time of photography's invention a plethora of reprographic processes were available and these were being exploited to meet the rising demand for loose graphic reproductions and the business opportunities offered by rapidly expanding and diversifying commercial markets. Both Daguerre and Talbot appreciated the importance of reproducing works of art (including paintings, drawings, engravings, sculpture, and decorative art), not only to demonstrate their respective photographic processes but also for commercial reasons. Subsequently during the 19th century, art reproduction was to form a key and commercially very significant part of the photographic market.

While most 19th-century commercial photographers marketed themselves as generalists covering the general requirements of their customers, across Europe and beyond some created significant reputations for art reproduction. These included Fratelli Alinari of Florence, Adolphe Braun of Dornach, Robert Macpherson and James Anderson (1813-77) in Rome, Leonida Caldesi (fl. 1850s-1870s), an Italian working in London, the Parisian-domiciled Englishman Robert Bingham (1825-70), Franz and Edgar Hanfstaengl in Munich, and Juan Laurent (1816-c.1890) and Charles Clifford (1819-63) in Madrid. At the end of the century Frederick Hollyer (1837-1933) was renowned for his reproduction of paintings. In the 20th century Walter Hege (1893-1955) and Wim Swaan (1927-95) were also highly acclaimed.

By the 1850s all aspects of the commercial art world, including painters, sculptors, architects, engravers, art dealers, and auction houses, had adopted photography. The public sector in the form of museums also did so, and appointed photographers. Charles Thurston Thompson (1816-68) was one of the earliest of these and his career at the South Kensington (now Victoria & Albert) Museum during the 1850s and 1860s created a benchmark as he recorded the permanent collections and temporary loan exhibitions, and ventured abroad to photograph in France, Spain, and Portugal. By 1880 the museum held a collection of some 50, 000 photographs acquired from all over the world.

Photography was beset by numerous technical problems during much of the 19th century. The angle of view of lenses and the ‘movementa’ of plate cameras restricted architectural views. A major challenge was the limited spectral sensitivity of black-and-white photographic emulsions that could not reproduce the full colour spectrum. This was particularly apparent in the reproduction of paintings. It is significant that it was the specialist photographic art reproduction company of Adolphe Braun that introduced improved orthochromatic (or isochromatic) emulsions in 1878, fully panchromatic film being introduced in 1905. However, colour photographic processes were developed as early as the late 1860s and paintings by Édouard Manet reproduced at this time.

Photographs of works of art were disseminated through a number of print dealers such as the London firms of Colnaghi, Agnew, and W. A. Mansell & Co. Goupil & Cie, founded in 1827, had offices in Paris, Brussels, The Hague, London, Berlin, New York, and Australia. Hanfstaengl of Munich and Giraudon of Paris are other examples. In the 20th century firms such as Scala of Florence continued this specialism.

A wide variety of photographic print formats were exploited for art reproduction during the 19th century. These ranged from thumbnail-sized prints, used as border decoration in photo albums, to the ‘elephant’-format images of paintings in major European galleries published in portfolios by Adolphe Braun et Cie. In some instances a variety of different loose print sizes were available of the same image. Stereographs, cartes de visite from the 1850s, and cabinet prints from the 1860s were all used to document a wide variety of works of art. The glass photographic lantern slide, a cornerstone of art history teaching, was invented in the late 1840s and was beginning to have a significant impact in Germany by the end of the 1870s, promoted by celebrated lecturers like Hermann Grimm (1828-1901). It was not until the 1960s that it was abandoned in favour of the 35 mm slide.

The use of photography to illustrate art books began in the 1840s and has become one of the most significant applications of photographs of works of art. Publishers such as Sampson Low, Bell & Daldy, A. W. Bennett, Day & Son, Seeley, Jackson & Halliday, and Bickers & Son were prominent in the 19th century, while Phaidon, Albert Skira, and Thames & Hudson were notable 20th-century examples.

Anon., ItalianMichelangelo's Last Judgment in the Sistine Chapel, Rome, late 19thcentury. Albumen print

— Anthony Hamber

Bibliography

• Hamber, A. J., ‘A Higher Branch of the Art’: Photographing the Fine Arts in England 1839-1880 (1996).
• Bergstein, M., and O'Brien, M. C. (eds.), Image and Enterprise: The Photographs of Adolphe Braun (2000)