Image series 35 / 2017: Anna Atkins
Algae - Drawn With Light
22 August 2017
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By: Bettina Pfleging
On light-sensitive paper, the English botanist and photographer Anna Atkins laid algae as well as numerous botanical specimens and illustrated their diverse structures in blueprints. Not meant to be art, the cyanotypes are a testimony of the beginnings of photography in the 19th century.
The birth year of photography is 1839. The exhibition shows the joy of experimenting in the early years. In the first room pages from a copy of Atkins photographically illustrated book “Photographs of British Algae” are shown, a new acquisition of the museum with a total of 307 photographs.
„New Realities. Photography in the Nineteenth Century“
June 17 2017 to September 17 2017, Rijksmuseum Amsterdam
Anna Atkins. Polypodium vulgare, 1849/1851, Papier (Cyanotypie), 32,3 × 23 cm; ArteMIS, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, Kunsthistorisches Institut, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München
Anna Atkins. Partridge, um 1850; Diathek online, Technische Universität Dresden, Institut für Kunstgeschichte
Anna Atkins. „Lycopodium… Ceylon“, Studium der Vegetation, 1851 bis 1854, Fotografie/negativ; DadaWeb, Universität zu Köln, Kunsthistorisches Institut, Universität zu Köln
Anna Atkins. Fotogram van een varen (addertong, Ophioglopum vulgatum), 1853 – 1854, paper, 25,8 × 20 cm, Amsterdam; Rijksmuseum Collection, Amsterdam
Anna Atkins. Iris, vor 1854, Silbergelatinepapier, 24,8 × 34,9 cm, New York; Digitale Diathek, Justus-Liebig-Universität Gießen, Institut für Kunstgeschichte, Justus-Liebig-Universität Gießen
Anna Atkins. Oeillet de pantoufle collectionné à Portland (Cipripedium), 1854, Photographie, cyanotype, 26 × 21 cm, Malibu; Iconothèque, Université de Genève, Bibliothèque d’art et d’archéologie
Anna Atkins. Adiantum Capilus venerum (Farn), vor 1864, Cyanotypie, 25,7 × 20,1 cm, Köln; DILPS Bilddatenbank UdK, Universität der Künste Berlin
Anna Atkins. Papaver orientale, 19. Jh., 35,3 × 24 cm; Imago, Humboldt-Universität Berlin, Institut für Kunst- und Bildgeschichte, Humboldt-Universität Berlin
