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tion. These images appeared in the publications of John
Henry Parker (1806–1884) dealing with the Roman and
Early Christian archaeology of Rome.
One of the most prominent challenges to the pho-
tography of painting was the limited spectral sensitivity
of black and white photographic materials that could
not reproduce the full colour spectrum. This was of
particularly apparent in the reproduction of paintings
and frequently evidenced in religious paintings where
the traditional blue colour of the Virgin Mary’s cloak
would be reproduced as a very light tone due to the
photographic emulsions being oversensitive to blue thus
making a very dark area on the negative—which in turn
printed as a light tone in the photographic print. Some
photographers ‘retouched’ their negatives of paintings
to counteract the tonal imbalances introduced by the
spectral sensitivity of the photographic emulsions they
used. Others retouched the photographic print and then
rephotographed the retouched photograph in order to
create a second negative from which they might print
more tonally accurate photographic prints. That pho-
tographers were willing to go to such lengths indicates
the commercial value of the market for photographs of
paintings during the 19th century and it is signifi cant
that it was the specialist photographic art reproduction
company of Adolph Braun that developed and then
introduced improved orthochromatic (or isochromatic)
emulsions in 1878, fully panchromatic fi lm being in-
troduced in 1905.
Related to this technical limitation of 19th century
photographic processes is the fact that during much of
the 19th century photography was exploited to copy
reproductions after paintings, such as engravings,
lithographs and the like. Undoubtedly, the copying of
achromatic engravings was a simple and thus extremely
cheap form of copy photography. In some instances there
were practical and economic reasons for photographers
or publishers not being able to photograph directly from
paintings. However, throughout the 19th century the en-
graving remained highly esteemed and thus photographs
of important engravings after paintings were frequently
seen as valuable in their own right.
Producing ‘colour’ photographs of paintings was
addressed in a number ways. Firstly, was the hand co-
louring of monochrome photographs of paintings. An
example of a hand coloured Calotype from the studio of
Nicolaas Henneman dated to the late 1840s survives and
the colouring of Daguerreotypes was also well developed
by this time as photographers exploited the professional
talents of miniature painters in new commercial fi elds. A
signifi cant market for coloured photographs developed
and Vincent van Gogh (1853–1890), while working in
the London offi ce of the printseller Goupil, mentioned
this in a letter to his brother in November 1873.
The development of hybrid reprographic processes
was also an avenue that was explored to reproduce paint-
ings in colour. Between 1864 and 1866 Jules Labarte’s
Histoire des Arts Industriels au Moyen Age et à l’époque
de la Renaissance was published and was illustrated
with two ‘albums’ containing 150 plates created by
the Parisian printer Lemercier through a synthesis of
photographic, lithographic, photomechanical and chro-
molithographic processes. However, few of the plates
are of ‘paintings.’ Similarly, the Photochromie process of
Léon Vidal (1834–1906) introduced in 1875 and which
combined chromolithography and the Woodburytype
photomechanical process was little used to reproduce
paintings.
Colour photographic processes were developed as
early as the late 1860s and paintings by Edouard Ma-
net (1832–1883) reproduced at this time. Charles Cros
(1842–1882), the inventor of one of the earliest colour
photographic processes copied Jeanne—Le Printemps,
Manet’s portrait of Jeanne Demarsy, dated 1881–82. This
photograph was used by Ernest Hoschedé (died 1892) for
the cover of his review Impressions de mon voyage au
Salon de 1882 (A. Tolmer, Paris, 1882). Cros and Manet
shared an interest in the problems of colour-printing
technology and the reproduction of this painting was part
of their experiments in colour photogravure.
Photographs of paintings were disseminated through
a number of channels. Print dealers dealers formed a
primary channel. In Florence, Fratelli Alinari formed
an association with the print seller Bardi in the early
1850s. In the same decade the London fi rms of Paul
and Dominic Colnaghi and Thomas Agnew & Sons
commissioned and published photographs of paint-
ings. Together these two dealers copublished one of the
landmarks in the photographic reproduction of paint-
ings Photographs of the “Gems of the Art Treasures
Exhibition,” Manchester, 1857. This title consisted of
some 200 photographs—100 “Ancient” masters and 100
‘Modern’ masters—taken directly from the paintings.
These photographs formed a milestone in 19th century
art historiography in that it helped in the reattribution
of a number of works by the Old Masters, often to the
detriment of the owners who had perhaps sent a work of
an ‘Old Master’ to Manchester only to have it returned
as a copy or work of another, lesser artist. A contem-
porary review of these photographs also pointed to the
democratisation of art; “These things bring Art nearer
the reach of the poor man—to whom it will some day
become, not mere furniture and wearying luxury, but hope
and comfort, and prophecy and exhortation.”
Colnaghi set up a photographic studio specialising
in art reproduction and formed a professional relation-
ship with Leonida Caldesi that prospered during the late
1850s and 1860s.
Throughout the 19th century stationers and book
shops also provided a wide range of photographs for