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Record Details

Photograph (Experimental Photogenic Drawing, Cyanotype), by Sir John Herschel, c.1842

Inventory Number: 15382
Object Type:
Persons: Sir John Frederick William Herschel (Photographer)
Date Created:
Accession Number: 1928-71
Brief Description: Experimental photogenic drawing (direct positive cyanotype) by Sir John Herschel, undated, c.1842. The surprising blue and green effect is a characteristic of one of the experimental variants of the cyanotype that produced a direct positive image. The corners of the image (not of the paper itself) are cut away.

Subject: engraving 63470, lady with beads
Technique: direct positive contact copy
Format: vertical
Polarity: positive
Orientation: laterally reversed
Quality: too dark, no clean highlights
Colour: dark blue, green border, plain back
Chemistry: direct positive cyanotype, the inscription implies lead acetate and ?ferric ammonium citrate as sensitising agents
Coating: none
Inscription: chemical note
Paper: normal, thinnish
Condition: good
Purpose: a cyanotype experiment using a variant process that produced a direct positive image.

For fuller descriptive and historical commentary see narratives.
Primary Inscriptions: 'AcL + ACl + [...?]' [latter in circle].
Provenance: Presented by Miss Herschel and Lady Lubbock in 1928. They were the two surviving and youngest children of Sir John Herschel (Francisca and Constance).
Collection Group: Herschel's Photographic Experiments
Material(s): Paper
Dimensions:
Height Width Depth Diameter Unit
120 99 mm

Narratives

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