Sunday, May 21, 2017

Albumen Prints

André-Adolphe-Eugène Disdéri
Antonio María del Valle Serrano
1860
albumen print carte de visite
Museo Cerralbo, Madrid

André-Adolphe-Eugène Disdéri
Jules Armand, duc de Polignac
ca. 1858-59
albumen print cartes de visite
Museum of Fine Arts, Houston

"Considered the father of commercial portrait photography, A.A. Disdéri changed the face of photography when he patented the carte de visite process in 1854.  He opened his first studio in 1849 in Brest, after prior careers as a painter, lingerie maker, and accountant.  In 1852 he began studying the wet collodion process which led to his patent of cartes de visite, and by 1854 he had opened the largest portrait studio in Paris.  His second studio, specializing in equestrian portraits, opened in 1861, the same year he was reputed to be "the richest photographer in the world."  In 1868 a studio branch opened in England.  Disdéri became a favorite portraitist among the courts of France, England, and Spain, particularly after he was rumored to have made a carte portrait of Napoleon III.  Wealth gained from his carte de visite business, however, did not keep Disdéri from experiencing financial collapse.  He died in Paris, in 1889, blind, deaf, and destitute."

 curator's notes from the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston

Oscar Gustave Rejlander
Girl with Dove
ca. 1860-70
albumen print
George Eastman House, Rochester NY

W. & D. Downey, Photographers
Sarah Bernhardt in Francesca da Rimini
1902
albumen print
Jewish Museum, New York

Adolphe Braun
Falls of the Reichenbach
1860
albumen print
Museum of Fine Arts, Houston

Adolphe Braun
Floral Still-life
ca. 1852-62
albumen print
George Eastman House, Rochester NY

Félix Nadar
Portrait of Honoré Daumier
before 1879
albumen silver print
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

Felice Beato
Portrait of a Coolie, Japan
1866-67
hand-colored albumen silver print
Getty Museum, Los Angeles

Gustave Le Gray
Seascape Cloud Study
1856-57
albumen print
Musée d'Orsay, Paris

Eugène Atget
Luxembourg Gardens, Paris
1902-03
albumen silver print
Getty Museum, Los Angeles

Eugène Atget
Saint Cloud
1926
albumen silver print
Getty Museum, Los Angeles

Eugène Atget
Pollard willows in winter
ca. 1921-22
albumen silver print
Getty Museum, Los Angeles

Eugène Atget
Old Convent, Avenue de l'Observatoire, Paris
1923
albumen silver print
Getty Museum, Los Angeles

Eugène Atget
The Old Château, Sceaux
1923
albumen silver print
Getty Museum, Los Angeles