Color and Victorian Photography

221 Pages·2020·8.841 MB·English

by  Lindsay Smith

COLOR AND VICTORIAN
PHOTOGRAPHY
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Key Texts in Victorian Photography
Series Editor: Jennifer Green-Lewis
Tis series ofers a collection of themed sourcebooks, curated by scholars
from a variety of felds. As well as reproducing well-known texts from
photography’s history, each volume also introduces signifcant lesser-
known pieces, inviting fresh discussion and new ways of thinking about
photography throughout the long nineteenth century.
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COLOR AND VICTORIAN
PHOTOGRAPHY
Edited by
LINDSAY SMITH
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First published 2020 by Bloomsbury Academic
Published 2020 by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
605 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
Introduction, selection and editorial matter copyright © Lindsay Smith, 2020
Lindsay Smith has asserted her right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents
Act, 1988, to be identified as Editor of this work.
Cover image © Lindsay Smith
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or
utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now
known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any
information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the
publishers.
Notice:
Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and
are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe.
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
A catalog record for this book is available from the Library of Congress.
Series: Key Texts in Victorian Photography
Typeset by RefineCatch Limited, Bungay, Suffolk
ISBN 13: 978-1-4742-6421-1 (hbk)
ISBN 13: 978-1-4742-6420-4 (pbk)
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CONTENTS
List of Illustrations viii
Introduction 1
A Note on the Texts 55
TEXTS
SECTION 1 “In traces represented by tints”:
Monochrome/Polychrome 57
1 Coloritto or the Harmony of Colouring in Painting 59
J. C. Le Blon
2 Teory of Colours 63
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
3 “Of Turnerian Light” 69
John Ruskin
4 “French Discovery – Pencil of Nature” 75
5 “Te Progress and Present State of the
Daguerreotype Art” 79
M. Claudet
6 “Calotypes” 80
7 “Colour in its Relation to Photography” 82
Charles Martel
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vi CONTENTS
SECTION 2 “Exposed to the Sunbeams”: Chemical
Reactions/“Vegetable Colours” 85
8 An Essay on Combustion 87
Elizabeth Fulhame
9 “An Account of a Method of Copying Paintings upon
Glass” 101
Tomas Wedgwood and Humphry Davy
10 “On the Action of the Rays of the Solar Spectrum on
Vegetable Colours, and Some New Photographic
Processes” 106
John F. W. Herschel
SECTION  3 “Graphy” and “Photos”: Te Color Purple 115
11 PURPURA ANGLICANA, being a discovery of a
shell-f sh found on the shores of the Severn 117
W. Cole
12 “Te Action of Light on the Colouring Matter from the
‘Murex’ ” 122
13 “Te Queen of the Air: Athena Keramitis II” 124
John Ruskin
SECTION 4 “Apollo and Apelles”: Coloring by Hand 127
14 “Artists Who Painted with the Pencil” 129
Pliny the Elder
15 Letters Upon the Art of Miniature Painting 131
L.Mansion
16 “Photography and Painting” 136
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CONTENTS vii
17 “Photography” 138
Henry Morley and William Wills
18 A Manual of Artistic Colouring, as applied to
Photographs 143
Alfred H. Wall
19 “Colouring Photographs. –No. I.” 151
SECTION 5 “Direct” and “Indirect” Color 157
20 “On the Application of Science to the Fine and Useful
Arts.Heliochrome” 159
Robert Hunt
21 “Tose who Live in Glass Houses” 166
22 “Colour Photography” 170
Gabriel Lippmann
23 “Te Spectrum Plate. Teory: Practice: Result” 177
Sarah Angelina Acland
24 In Camera 183
Yevonde
Bibliography 186
Index 193
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ILLUSTRATIONS
Plates
1. William Henry Fox Talbot, Leaves of Orchidea (April 1839),
photogenic drawing, salted paper print. 17.1 x 20.8 cm. Te
J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles. Digital image courtesy of
the Getty’s Open Content Program.
2. J. C. Le Blon, Narcissus (1714), color mezzotint. Yale Center for
British Art, Paul Mellon Collection, Prints and Drawings.
3. William Dyce, Titian Preparing to Make his First Lesson in
Colouring (1856–1857), oil on canvas. Aberdeen Art Gallery and
Museums. © Aberdeen City Council (Art Gallery & Museums
Collections).
4. Peter Paul Rubens, Heracles’s Dog discovers the Purple Dye
(1636), oil on canvas. Musée Bonnat, Bayonne. © Bayonne,
Musée Bonnat-Helleu/cliché: A. Vaquero.
5. Sir John Herschel, Engraved Portrait of a Young Woman (about
1842), cyanotype. Te J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles.
Digital image courtesy of the Getty’s Open Content
Program.
6. Anna Atkins, Plocamium coccineum (1846–1847), cyanotype.
Te J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles. Digital image courtesy
of the Getty’s Open Content Program.
7. Hippolyte Bayard, Tree feathers (1840–1841), cyanotype.
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ILLUSTRATIONS ix
13.8 x 11.1 cm. Te J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles.
Digital image courtesy of the Getty’s Open Content
Program.
8. Sir John Herschel, Experimental photogenic drawing (1842),
chrysotype. Inv. 2208. © History of Science Museum, University
of Oxford.
9. Antoine-François-Jean Claudet (1797–1867), Portrait of a Girl in
a Blue Dress (about 1854), daguerreotype, hand- tinted. Te
J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles. Digital image courtesy of
the Getty’s Open Content Program.
10. Antoine-François-Jean Claudet (1797–1867), Boy with a Parrot
(about 1856), hand- colored stereographic daguerreotype. Te
J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles. Digital image courtesy of the
Getty’s Open Content Program.
11. Tomas Sutton/James Clerk Maxwell, Tartan Ribbon (1861),
tri- color negatives. National Science and Media Museum/
Science and Society Picture Library.
12. Louis Ducos du Hauron, Still Life with Rooster (c. 1869–1879),
transparency, three- color carbon. Courtesy of the George
Eastman Museum.
13. Lumière Brothers Lilacs (about 1898), autochrome, stereograph.
7 x 6.7 cm. Te J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles. Digital
image courtesy of the Getty’s Open Content Program.
14. Sarah Angelina Acland, Broad Street, Oxford (around 1900),
color print from three- color separation glass negatives. Inv.
25293. © History of Science Museum, University of Oxford.
15. Yevonde, Joan Maude (1932), Vivex color print. © Yevonde
Archive.
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