{"title":"Cyanotype Prints","description":"\u003cp\u003eA cyanotype is made without a camera. An object is laid on paper coated with iron salts, put in the sun, and rinsed in water. What the object covered stays white; the rest turns Prussian blue. Sir John Herschel invented the process in 1842. Anna Atkins used it the following year to make the first book ever illustrated with photographs.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eTwo albums.\u003c\/strong\u003e The algae come from \u003cem\u003ePhotographs of British Algae: Cyanotype Impressions\u003c\/em\u003e, 1843–1853 — the copy Atkins gave to Herschel himself, now in the New York Public Library. The ferns come from \u003cem\u003eCyanotypes of British and Foreign Ferns\u003c\/em\u003e, 1853, made with her friend Anne Dixon and now in the Getty; that album's foreign half is a map of a correspondence network, with plants arriving pressed and flat from Jamaica, Ceylon, Brazil and New Jersey.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eWhat these are.\u003c\/strong\u003e Giclée prints, made new from museum digitisations. They are not cyanotypes and are not sold as such — a cyanotype is a unique object made in sunlight, and the historic ones are in museums. What the pigment ink reproduces is the blue, the white silhouette, and the paper of the 1840s and 50s.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eEvery plate is reproduced whole, including the handwritten species names added to each sheet. Each product page names the holding institution and the accession number. Where the coated paper runs past the height the museum catalogues, we say so on the page and print the object, not the catalogue entry.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eTwelve pigment inks on 200 gsm FSC-certified fine art paper, generous white border, ready to frame or mat. Unframed, shipped rolled in a tube.\u003c\/p\u003e","products":[{"product_id":"anna-atkins-dictyota-dichotoma-1853-giclee-print","title":"Anna Atkins – Dictyota dichotoma, 1853 | Giclée Print","description":"\u003cp\u003eAnna Atkins made this image without a camera. She laid a piece of dried seaweed on paper coated with iron salts, put it in the sun, and rinsed it in water. What the plant covered stayed white. Everything else turned Prussian blue.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eShe did this several thousand times. Between 1843 and 1853 she produced \u003cem\u003ePhotographs of British Algae: Cyanotype Impressions\u003c\/em\u003e — the first book in history illustrated with photographs, published eight months before Talbot's \u003cem\u003ePencil of Nature\u003c\/em\u003e. Perhaps twenty-five copies were ever assembled, each plate printed by hand, each caption written by hand.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eShe was a botanist, not an artist, and the intention was documentary: a visual key to species that line engraving rendered badly. The result is something else. A brown-branched alga on white paper is a specimen. The same alga as a white silhouette on deep blue is a drawing made by the plant itself.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eWhich copy.\u003c\/strong\u003e This one is the New York Public Library's — the set Atkins sent to Sir John Herschel, the astronomer who invented the cyanotype process and to whom she owed it. Because every leaf in every copy was coated, exposed and captioned by hand, no two copies are alike. Her caption here reads \u003cem\u003eDictyota dichotoma, in the young state; and in fruit\u003c\/em\u003e.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eWhat this is.\u003c\/strong\u003e A giclée reproduction of one of Atkins's cyanotypes, printed with pigment inks. It is not a cyanotype and is not sold as one — a real cyanotype is a unique object made in sunlight, and Atkins's are in museums.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eScale\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cem\u003eOriginal leaf: approx. 27 × 21 cm \/ 10.6 × 8.3 in — The New York Public Library\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003e30 × 40 cm \/ 11.8 × 15.7 in\u003c\/strong\u003e — Original size, 1:1\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003e50 × 70 cm \/ 19.7 × 27.6 in\u003c\/strong\u003e — Enlarged, 2.03× original\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eAt original size the sheet carries the cyanotype exactly as Atkins made it. Enlarged, the seaweed reads across a room and the paper grain of 1853 becomes visible — which is a different picture, and a deliberate one. Both sizes are printed at 300 dpi, the resolution fine art paper resolves.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThe leaf is reproduced whole, including Atkins's handwritten caption. Only the facing page and the binding edge are trimmed away.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThe edges, and what they are.\u003c\/strong\u003e This is the cleanest of the five algae sheets, and even here the edges carry their age. The corners are lightly chipped — 2.7 mm at the lower left, less at the other three — and where the coating has broken away the bare paper shows through. The blue runs unevenly to the very edge, because Atkins sensitised every sheet by hand with a brush and the sheets were cut by hand too, so not one of them is quite square.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eWhy it stays.\u003c\/strong\u003e None of it is damage to the picture. It is the record of a hundred and seventy years of being a book that people opened, and we print what the library photographed — the sheet as it is today, not as it left her hands in 1853. A photogram has no drawn line to correct back to, so a mended corner would restore nothing; it would invent. Patina is not a flaw in an object this old. It is the evidence that the object is old, and it is the difference between a reproduction of a thing and a clean blue rectangle.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eProvenance\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\nAnna Atkins (1799–1871), \u003cem\u003eDictyota dichotoma, in the young state; and in fruit\u003c\/em\u003e, from \u003cem\u003ePhotographs of British Algae: Cyanotype Impressions\u003c\/em\u003e, 1843–1853; cyanotype, leaf approx. 27 × 21 cm.\u003cbr\u003e\nThe New York Public Library, Spencer Collection — the copy presented to Sir John Herschel. Shelf locator: Spencer Coll. Eng. 1843 93-440.\u003cbr\u003e\nThe work is in the public domain worldwide; the Library publishes its digitisation as public domain in the United States and asks to be credited.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThe print\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\nGiclée on 200 gsm FSC-certified fine art paper, twelve pigment inks. White border, optical centre. The paper tone of the original is kept, not corrected. Unframed. Shipped rolled in a tube.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Museartis","offers":[{"title":"30 × 40 cm \/ 11.8 × 15.7 in — Original size, 1:1","offer_id":65752620237149,"sku":"MUS-004-3040","price":49.0,"currency_code":"CHF","in_stock":true},{"title":"50 × 70 cm \/ 19.7 × 27.6 in — Enlarged, 2.1× original","offer_id":65752620269917,"sku":"MUS-004-5070","price":89.0,"currency_code":"CHF","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1102\/7139\/8237\/files\/museartis-atkins-dictyota-plate-v2.jpg?v=1788200361"},{"product_id":"anna-atkins-ptilota-plumosa-1853-giclee-print","title":"Anna Atkins – Ptilota plumosa, 1853 | Giclée Print","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003ePtilota plumosa\u003c\/em\u003e is a red alga that grows in fine, opposite branches, like a feather cut from wire. Under the sun, on iron-salted paper, it left this: a white plume on Prussian blue, every side branch separated, nothing drawn.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eAnna Atkins made her images without a camera. She laid the dried plant on coated paper, exposed it to daylight and rinsed it in water. Between 1843 and 1853 she did this several thousand times and produced \u003cem\u003ePhotographs of British Algae: Cyanotype Impressions\u003c\/em\u003e — the first book in history illustrated with photographs. Perhaps twenty-five copies were ever assembled.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eWhich copy.\u003c\/strong\u003e This one is the New York Public Library's — the set Atkins sent to Sir John Herschel, the astronomer who invented the cyanotype process and to whom she owed it. Because every leaf in every copy was coated, exposed and captioned by hand, no two copies are alike.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eWhat this is.\u003c\/strong\u003e A giclée reproduction of one of Atkins's cyanotypes, printed with pigment inks. It is not a cyanotype and is not sold as one — a real cyanotype is a unique object made in sunlight, and Atkins's are in museums.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eScale\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cem\u003eOriginal leaf: approx. 27 × 21 cm \/ 10.6 × 8.3 in — The New York Public Library\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003e30 × 40 cm \/ 11.8 × 15.7 in\u003c\/strong\u003e — Original size, 1:1\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003e50 × 70 cm \/ 19.7 × 27.6 in\u003c\/strong\u003e — Enlarged, 1.95× original\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eAt original size the sheet carries the cyanotype exactly as Atkins made it. Enlarged, the plume reads across a room and the paper grain of 1853 becomes visible — which is a different picture, and a deliberate one. Both sizes are printed at 300 dpi, the resolution fine art paper resolves.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThe leaf is reproduced whole, including Atkins's handwritten species name. Only the facing page and the binding edge are trimmed away.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThe edges, and what they are.\u003c\/strong\u003e This is the most worn sheet of the five, and it is here on purpose. All four corners carry loss — 2.2, 3.8, 5.4 and 7.1 mm on the 1:1 print — and at three of them the coating has broken away entirely, most at the lower right, where the bare paper shows through. The blue runs unevenly to the very edge, because Atkins sensitised every sheet by hand with a brush and the sheets were cut by hand too, so not one of them is quite square.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eWhy it stays.\u003c\/strong\u003e None of it is damage to the picture. It is the record of a hundred and seventy years of being a book that people opened, and we print what the library photographed — the sheet as it is today, not as it left her hands in 1853. A photogram has no drawn line to correct back to, so a mended corner would restore nothing; it would invent. Patina is not a flaw in an object this old. It is the evidence that the object is old, and it is the difference between a reproduction of a thing and a clean blue rectangle.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eProvenance\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\nAnna Atkins (1799–1871), \u003cem\u003ePtilota plumosa\u003c\/em\u003e, from \u003cem\u003ePhotographs of British Algae: Cyanotype Impressions\u003c\/em\u003e, 1843–1853; cyanotype, leaf approx. 27 × 21 cm.\u003cbr\u003e\nThe New York Public Library, Spencer Collection — the copy presented to Sir John Herschel. Shelf locator: Spencer Coll. Eng. 1843 93-440.\u003cbr\u003e\nThe work is in the public domain worldwide; the Library publishes its digitisation as public domain in the United States and asks to be credited.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThe print\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\nGiclée on 200 gsm FSC-certified fine art paper, twelve pigment inks. White border, optical centre. The paper tone of the original is kept, not corrected. Unframed. Shipped rolled in a tube.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Museartis","offers":[{"title":"30 × 40 cm \/ 11.8 × 15.7 in — Original size, 1:1","offer_id":65752625676637,"sku":"MUS-005-3040","price":49.0,"currency_code":"CHF","in_stock":true},{"title":"50 × 70 cm \/ 19.7 × 27.6 in — Enlarged, 2.1× original","offer_id":65752625774941,"sku":"MUS-005-5070","price":89.0,"currency_code":"CHF","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1102\/7139\/8237\/files\/museartis-atkins-ptilota-plate-v2.jpg?v=1788200361"},{"product_id":"anna-atkins-delesseria-hypoglossum-1853-giclee-print","title":"Anna Atkins – Delesseria hypoglossum, 1853 | Giclée Print","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eDelesseria hypoglossum\u003c\/em\u003e grows in thin translucent blades, one leaf springing from the midrib of the last. Laid on sensitised paper and left in the sun, it printed as a chain of pale leaves — a plant that looks drawn, and was not.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eAnna Atkins made her images without a camera. She laid the dried plant on coated paper, exposed it to daylight and rinsed it in water. Between 1843 and 1853 she did this several thousand times and produced \u003cem\u003ePhotographs of British Algae: Cyanotype Impressions\u003c\/em\u003e — the first book in history illustrated with photographs. Perhaps twenty-five copies were ever assembled.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eWhich copy.\u003c\/strong\u003e This one is the New York Public Library's — the set Atkins sent to Sir John Herschel, the astronomer who invented the cyanotype process and to whom she owed it. Because every leaf in every copy was coated, exposed and captioned by hand, no two copies are alike.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eWhat this is.\u003c\/strong\u003e A giclée reproduction of one of Atkins's cyanotypes, printed with pigment inks. It is not a cyanotype and is not sold as one — a real cyanotype is a unique object made in sunlight, and Atkins's are in museums.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eScale\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cem\u003eOriginal leaf: approx. 27 × 21 cm \/ 10.6 × 8.3 in — The New York Public Library\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003e30 × 40 cm \/ 11.8 × 15.7 in\u003c\/strong\u003e — Original size, 1:1\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003e50 × 70 cm \/ 19.7 × 27.6 in\u003c\/strong\u003e — Enlarged, 2.05× original\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eAt original size the sheet carries the cyanotype exactly as Atkins made it. Enlarged, the leaf blades read across a room and the paper grain of 1853 becomes visible — which is a different picture, and a deliberate one. Both sizes are printed at 300 dpi, the resolution fine art paper resolves.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThe leaf is reproduced whole, including Atkins's handwritten species name. Only the facing page and the binding edge are trimmed away.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThe edges, and what they are.\u003c\/strong\u003e This leaf has been bound in an album since 1853 and handled ever since. Its corners are chipped — the upper right has lost 7.7 mm of coated paper, the single largest corner loss in the algae line — and where the coating has broken away the bare paper shows through. The blue runs unevenly to the very edge, because Atkins sensitised every sheet by hand with a brush and the sheets were cut by hand too, so not one of them is quite square. That is the whole inventory.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eWhy it stays.\u003c\/strong\u003e None of it is damage to the picture. It is the record of a hundred and seventy years of being a book that people opened, and we print what the library photographed — the sheet as it is today, not as it left her hands in 1853. A photogram has no drawn line to correct back to, so a mended corner would restore nothing; it would invent. Patina is not a flaw in an object this old. It is the evidence that the object is old, and it is the difference between a reproduction of a thing and a clean blue rectangle.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eProvenance\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\nAnna Atkins (1799–1871), \u003cem\u003eDelesseria hypoglossum\u003c\/em\u003e, from \u003cem\u003ePhotographs of British Algae: Cyanotype Impressions\u003c\/em\u003e, 1843–1853; cyanotype, leaf approx. 27 × 21 cm.\u003cbr\u003e\nThe New York Public Library, Spencer Collection — the copy presented to Sir John Herschel. Shelf locator: Spencer Coll. Eng. 1843 93-440.\u003cbr\u003e\nThe work is in the public domain worldwide; the Library publishes its digitisation as public domain in the United States and asks to be credited.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThe print\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\nGiclée on 200 gsm FSC-certified fine art paper, twelve pigment inks. White border, optical centre. The paper tone of the original is kept, not corrected. Unframed. Shipped rolled in a tube.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Museartis","offers":[{"title":"30 × 40 cm \/ 11.8 × 15.7 in — Original size, 1:1","offer_id":65752625709405,"sku":"MUS-006-3040","price":49.0,"currency_code":"CHF","in_stock":true},{"title":"50 × 70 cm \/ 19.7 × 27.6 in — Enlarged, 2.1× original","offer_id":65752625807709,"sku":"MUS-006-5070","price":89.0,"currency_code":"CHF","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1102\/7139\/8237\/files\/museartis-atkins-delesseria-plate-v2.jpg?v=1788200361"},{"product_id":"anna-atkins-polysiphonia-fastigiata-1853-giclee-print","title":"Anna Atkins – Polysiphonia fastigiata, 1853 | Giclée Print","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003ePolysiphonia fastigiata\u003c\/em\u003e grows in dense tufts on the wracks of the North Atlantic, each frond a bundle of parallel tubes no thicker than a hair. Five of them lie on this sheet. The light did the rest — no line was drawn.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eAnna Atkins made her images without a camera. She laid the dried plant on coated paper, exposed it to daylight and rinsed it in water. Between 1843 and 1853 she did this several thousand times and produced \u003cem\u003ePhotographs of British Algae: Cyanotype Impressions\u003c\/em\u003e — the first book in history illustrated with photographs. Perhaps twenty-five copies were ever assembled.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eWhich copy.\u003c\/strong\u003e This one is the New York Public Library's — the set Atkins sent to Sir John Herschel, the astronomer who invented the cyanotype process and to whom she owed it. Because every leaf in every copy was coated, exposed and captioned by hand, no two copies are alike.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eWhat this is.\u003c\/strong\u003e A giclée reproduction of one of Atkins's cyanotypes, printed with pigment inks. It is not a cyanotype and is not sold as one — a real cyanotype is a unique object made in sunlight, and Atkins's are in museums.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eScale\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cem\u003eOriginal leaf: approx. 27 × 21 cm \/ 10.6 × 8.3 in — The New York Public Library\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003e30 × 40 cm \/ 11.8 × 15.7 in\u003c\/strong\u003e — Original size, 1:1\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003e50 × 70 cm \/ 19.7 × 27.6 in\u003c\/strong\u003e — Enlarged, 1.97× original\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eAt original size the sheet carries the cyanotype exactly as Atkins made it. Enlarged, the five tufts read across a room and the paper grain of 1853 becomes visible — which is a different picture, and a deliberate one. Both sizes are printed at 300 dpi, the resolution fine art paper resolves.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThe leaf is reproduced whole, including Atkins's handwritten species name. Only the facing page and the binding edge are trimmed away.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThe edges, and what they are.\u003c\/strong\u003e This leaf has been bound in an album since 1853 and handled ever since. Its corners are chipped — 4.8 mm at the upper right, less at the other three — and where the coating has broken away the bare paper shows through. The blue runs unevenly to the very edge, because Atkins sensitised every sheet by hand with a brush and the sheets were cut by hand too, so not one of them is quite square.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eWhy it stays.\u003c\/strong\u003e None of it is damage to the picture. It is the record of a hundred and seventy years of being a book that people opened, and we print what the library photographed — the sheet as it is today, not as it left her hands in 1853. A photogram has no drawn line to correct back to, so a mended corner would restore nothing; it would invent. Patina is not a flaw in an object this old. It is the evidence that the object is old, and it is the difference between a reproduction of a thing and a clean blue rectangle.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eWhy this sheet ends where it does.\u003c\/strong\u003e The Library's photograph of this leaf stops at the sheet's right-hand edge: the paper curves into the album's gutter there, and the outermost few millimetres are not in the file. The dark band down the right side is the shadow of that fold, not the edge of Atkins's sheet. We print the digitisation as it is rather than invent the missing strip.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eProvenance\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\nAnna Atkins (1799–1871), \u003cem\u003ePolysiphonia fastigiata\u003c\/em\u003e, from \u003cem\u003ePhotographs of British Algae: Cyanotype Impressions\u003c\/em\u003e, 1843–1853; cyanotype, leaf approx. 27 × 21 cm.\u003cbr\u003e\nThe New York Public Library, Spencer Collection — the copy presented to Sir John Herschel. Shelf locator: Spencer Coll. Eng. 1843 93-440.\u003cbr\u003e\nThe work is in the public domain worldwide; the Library publishes its digitisation as public domain in the United States and asks to be credited.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThe print\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\nGiclée on 200 gsm FSC-certified fine art paper, twelve pigment inks. White border, optical centre. The paper tone of the original is kept, not corrected. Unframed. Shipped rolled in a tube.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Museartis","offers":[{"title":"30 × 40 cm \/ 11.8 × 15.7 in — Original size, 1:1","offer_id":65755226538333,"sku":"MUS-008-3040","price":49.0,"currency_code":"CHF","in_stock":true},{"title":"50 × 70 cm \/ 19.7 × 27.6 in — Enlarged, 2.1× original","offer_id":65755227226461,"sku":"MUS-008-5070","price":89.0,"currency_code":"CHF","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1102\/7139\/8237\/files\/museartis-atkins-polysiphonia-plate-v2.jpg?v=1788200377"},{"product_id":"anna-atkins-zygnema-curvatum-1853-giclee-print","title":"Anna Atkins – Zygnema curvatum, 1853 | Giclée Print","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eZygnema curvatum\u003c\/em\u003e is a freshwater alga of ponds and slow ditches — a mat of green threads so fine that a handful feels like wet silk. Dried and laid on the sensitised paper, it printed as one luminous mass, closer to a cloud than to a plant. It is the least plant-like picture in the whole album, and the most modern.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eAnna Atkins made her images without a camera. She laid the dried plant on coated paper, exposed it to daylight and rinsed it in water. Between 1843 and 1853 she did this several thousand times and produced \u003cem\u003ePhotographs of British Algae: Cyanotype Impressions\u003c\/em\u003e — the first book in history illustrated with photographs. Perhaps twenty-five copies were ever assembled.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eWhich copy.\u003c\/strong\u003e This one is the New York Public Library's — the set Atkins sent to Sir John Herschel, the astronomer who invented the cyanotype process and to whom she owed it. Because every leaf in every copy was coated, exposed and captioned by hand, no two copies are alike.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eWhat this is.\u003c\/strong\u003e A giclée reproduction of one of Atkins's cyanotypes, printed with pigment inks. It is not a cyanotype and is not sold as one — a real cyanotype is a unique object made in sunlight, and Atkins's are in museums.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eScale\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cem\u003eOriginal leaf: approx. 27 × 21 cm \/ 10.6 × 8.3 in — The New York Public Library\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003e30 × 40 cm \/ 11.8 × 15.7 in\u003c\/strong\u003e — Original size, 1:1\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003e50 × 70 cm \/ 19.7 × 27.6 in\u003c\/strong\u003e — Enlarged, 2.05× original\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eAt original size the sheet carries the cyanotype exactly as Atkins made it. Enlarged, the mass fills a wall and the paper grain of 1853 becomes visible — which is a different picture, and a deliberate one. Both sizes are printed at 300 dpi, the resolution fine art paper resolves.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThe leaf is reproduced whole, including Atkins's handwritten species name. Only the facing page and the binding edge are trimmed away.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThe edges, and what they are.\u003c\/strong\u003e This leaf has been bound in an album since 1853 and handled ever since. Its corners are chipped — 3.9 mm at the upper right, 1.6 to 2.8 mm at the other three — and where the coating has broken away the bare paper shows through. The blue runs unevenly to the very edge, because Atkins sensitised every sheet by hand with a brush and the sheets were cut by hand too, so not one of them is quite square. That is the whole inventory.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eWhy it stays.\u003c\/strong\u003e None of it is damage to the picture. It is the record of a hundred and seventy years of being a book that people opened, and we print what the library photographed — the sheet as it is today, not as it left her hands in 1853. A photogram has no drawn line to correct back to, so a mended corner would restore nothing; it would invent. Patina is not a flaw in an object this old. It is the evidence that the object is old, and it is the difference between a reproduction of a thing and a clean blue rectangle.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eProvenance\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\nAnna Atkins (1799–1871), \u003cem\u003eZygnema curvatum\u003c\/em\u003e, from \u003cem\u003ePhotographs of British Algae: Cyanotype Impressions\u003c\/em\u003e, 1843–1853; cyanotype, leaf approx. 27 × 21 cm.\u003cbr\u003e\nThe New York Public Library, Spencer Collection — the copy presented to Sir John Herschel. Shelf locator: Spencer Coll. Eng. 1843 93-440.\u003cbr\u003e\nThe work is in the public domain worldwide; the Library publishes its digitisation as public domain in the United States and asks to be credited.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThe print\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\nGiclée on 200 gsm FSC-certified fine art paper, twelve pigment inks. White border, optical centre. The paper tone of the original is kept, not corrected. Unframed. Shipped rolled in a tube.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Museartis","offers":[{"title":"30 × 40 cm \/ 11.8 × 15.7 in — Original size, 1:1","offer_id":65755226833245,"sku":"MUS-009-3040","price":49.0,"currency_code":"CHF","in_stock":true},{"title":"50 × 70 cm \/ 19.7 × 27.6 in — Enlarged, 2.1× original","offer_id":65755227259229,"sku":"MUS-009-5070","price":89.0,"currency_code":"CHF","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1102\/7139\/8237\/files\/museartis-atkins-zygnema-plate-v2.jpg?v=1788200378"},{"product_id":"atkins-dixon-athyrium-molle-giclee-print","title":"Anna Atkins \u0026 Anne Dixon – Athyrium molle, 1853 | Giclée Print","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eAthyrium molle\u003c\/em\u003e is a soft-leaved lady fern. Anne Dixon pressed it, Anna Atkins printed it, and the sun did the drawing — a white frond standing in Prussian blue, every pinnule separated, no line drawn by hand. The species name at the foot of the sheet is written in Atkins's own hand.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eAnna Atkins made her images without a camera. She laid the dried plant on paper coated with iron salts, exposed it to daylight and rinsed it in water. She had done this several thousand times already for \u003cem\u003ePhotographs of British Algae\u003c\/em\u003e (1843–1853), the first book in history illustrated with photographs. This sheet belongs to what came after: \u003cem\u003eCyanotypes of British and Foreign Ferns\u003c\/em\u003e, 1853, made together with her friend Anne Dixon.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eWhich copy.\u003c\/strong\u003e The Getty's — the album Anne Dixon gave away the year it was made. The cover is stamped \u003cem\u003eA. D. to H. D. 1853\u003c\/em\u003e: Anne Dixon to Henry Dixon. It passed to a niece, then in 1932 to the Girls Friendly Society in Paris, and reached the J. Paul Getty Museum in 1984. Every leaf was coated, exposed and captioned by hand, so no two copies of the album are alike.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eWhat this is.\u003c\/strong\u003e A giclée reproduction of a cyanotype, printed with pigment inks. It is not a cyanotype and is not sold as one — a real cyanotype is a unique object made in sunlight, and these are in museums.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eScale\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cem\u003eOriginal, as the Getty catalogues it: image 25.4 × 19.4 cm \/ 10.0 × 7.6 in — The J. Paul Getty Museum\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003e30 × 40 cm \/ 11.8 × 15.7 in\u003c\/strong\u003e — Original size, 1:1\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003e40 × 50 cm \/ 15.7 × 19.7 in\u003c\/strong\u003e — Enlarged, 1.56× original\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eAt original size the sheet carries the cyanotype exactly as it was made in 1853, at the width the Getty catalogues. Enlarged, the frond reads across a room and the paper grain becomes visible — a different picture, and a deliberate one. Both sizes are printed at 300 dpi, the resolution fine art paper resolves.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eOne honest note on the measurement.\u003c\/strong\u003e The Getty catalogues the image as 25.4 × 19.4 cm, a ratio of 1.31. Measured on the digitisation, the coated blue paper runs to a ratio of 1.39 — it continues roughly a centimetre and a half below the caption, where the catalogued image height stops. We reproduce the blue paper whole, caption included, and anchor the scale on the catalogued width of 19.4 cm. The printed sheet is therefore 19.40 × 26.91 cm at 1:1: the museum's width, the object's full height.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eProvenance\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\nAnna Atkins (1799–1871) and Anne Dixon (1799–1864), \u003cem\u003eAthyrium molle\u003c\/em\u003e, from \u003cem\u003eCyanotypes of British and Foreign Ferns\u003c\/em\u003e, 1853; cyanotype, 25.4 × 19.4 cm.\u003cbr\u003e\nThe J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, object number 84.XO.227.26.\u003cbr\u003e\nGift from Anne Dixon to H. D., 1853 (album cover stamped «A. D. to H. D. 1853»); probably Henry Dixon; by descent to Miss Wedderburn; given to the Girls Friendly Society, Paris, 1932; Galerie Octant; Robert Hershkowitz Ltd.; through Daniel Wolf to the J. Paul Getty Museum, 1984.\u003cbr\u003e\nThe work is in the public domain worldwide; the Getty publishes its digitisation under Open Content.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThe print\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\nGiclée on 200 gsm FSC-certified fine art paper, twelve pigment inks. White border, optical centre. The paper tone of the original is kept, not corrected. Unframed. Shipped rolled in a tube.\u003c\/p\u003e\n","brand":"Museartis","offers":[{"title":"30 × 40 cm \/ 11.8 × 15.7 in — Original size, 1:1","offer_id":65776589668701,"sku":"MUS-033-3040","price":49.0,"currency_code":"CHF","in_stock":true},{"title":"40 × 50 cm \/ 15.7 × 19.7 in — Enlarged, 1.56× original","offer_id":65776589701469,"sku":"MUS-033-4050","price":59.0,"currency_code":"CHF","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1102\/7139\/8237\/files\/museartis-atkins-dixon-athyrium-molle-plate.jpg?v=1788287328"},{"product_id":"atkins-dixon-aspidium-trifoliatum-giclee-print","title":"Anna Atkins \u0026 Anne Dixon – Aspidium trifoliatum, 1853 | Giclée Print","description":"\u003cp\u003eThis is a fern, and it does not look like one. No feathery pinnules, no lace — one broad three-lobed blade with a torn, saw-toothed edge, closer to a maple leaf or a fig. \u003cem\u003eAspidium trifoliatum\u003c\/em\u003e grew in Jamaica, and it reached a house in Kent as a pressed specimen in an envelope.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eAnna Atkins made her images without a camera. She laid the dried plant on paper coated with iron salts, exposed it to daylight and rinsed it in water. What the plant covered stayed white; everything else turned Prussian blue. She had already done this several thousand times for \u003cem\u003ePhotographs of British Algae\u003c\/em\u003e (1843–1853), the first book in history illustrated with photographs. This sheet comes from what followed: \u003cem\u003eCyanotypes of British and Foreign Ferns\u003c\/em\u003e, 1853, made with her friend Anne Dixon.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eWhy Jamaica.\u003c\/strong\u003e The album is half British and half foreign, and the foreign half is a map of a correspondence network — Jamaica, Ceylon, Brazil, New Jersey, Montreal. Two women in England could not travel to those places; the plants travelled to them, dried and flat, sent by collectors. Every exotic sheet in this album is a letter that arrived.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eWhat this is.\u003c\/strong\u003e A giclée reproduction of a cyanotype, printed with pigment inks. It is not a cyanotype and is not sold as one — a real cyanotype is a unique object made in sunlight, and these are in museums.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eScale\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cem\u003eOriginal, as the Getty catalogues it: image 25.4 × 19.4 cm \/ 10.0 × 7.6 in — The J. Paul Getty Museum\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003e30 × 40 cm \/ 11.8 × 15.7 in\u003c\/strong\u003e — Original size, 1:1\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003e40 × 50 cm \/ 15.7 × 19.7 in\u003c\/strong\u003e — Enlarged, 1.62× original\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eAt original size the sheet carries the cyanotype as it was made in 1853, at the width the Getty catalogues. Enlarged, the leaf becomes a single white shape that reads across a room, and the grain of the coated paper becomes visible — a different picture, and a deliberate one. Both sizes are printed at 300 dpi, the resolution fine art paper resolves.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eOne honest note on the measurement.\u003c\/strong\u003e The Getty catalogues the image as 25.4 × 19.4 cm, a ratio of 1.31. Measured on the digitisation, the coated blue paper runs to 1.34 — it continues a little below the caption, where the catalogued image height stops. We reproduce the blue paper whole, caption included, and anchor the scale on the catalogued width of 19.4 cm. The printed sheet is therefore 19.40 × 26.00 cm at 1:1: the museum's width, the object's full height.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eProvenance\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\nAnna Atkins (1799–1871) and Anne Dixon (1799–1864), \u003cem\u003eAspidium trifoliatum, Jamaica\u003c\/em\u003e, from \u003cem\u003eCyanotypes of British and Foreign Ferns\u003c\/em\u003e, 1853; cyanotype, 25.4 × 19.4 cm.\u003cbr\u003e\nThe J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, object number 84.XO.227.77.\u003cbr\u003e\nGift from Anne Dixon to H. D., 1853 (album cover stamped «A. D. to H. D. 1853»); probably Henry Dixon; by descent to Miss Wedderburn; given to the Girls Friendly Society, Paris, 1932; Galerie Octant; Robert Hershkowitz Ltd.; through Daniel Wolf to the J. Paul Getty Museum, 1984.\u003cbr\u003e\nThe work is in the public domain worldwide; the Getty publishes its digitisation under Open Content.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThe print\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\nGiclée on 200 gsm FSC-certified fine art paper, twelve pigment inks. White border, optical centre. The paper tone of the original is kept, not corrected. Unframed. Shipped rolled in a tube.\u003c\/p\u003e\n","brand":"Museartis","offers":[{"title":"30 × 40 cm \/ 11.8 × 15.7 in — Original size, 1:1","offer_id":65776771924317,"sku":"MUS-034-3040","price":49.0,"currency_code":"CHF","in_stock":true},{"title":"40 × 50 cm \/ 15.7 × 19.7 in — Enlarged, 1.62× original","offer_id":65776771957085,"sku":"MUS-034-4050","price":59.0,"currency_code":"CHF","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1102\/7139\/8237\/files\/museartis-atkins-dixon-aspidium-trifoliatum-plate.jpg?v=1788289059"},{"product_id":"atkins-dixon-onoclea-sensibilis-giclee-print","title":"Anna Atkins \u0026 Anne Dixon – Onoclea sensibilis, 1853 | Giclée Print","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eOnoclea sensibilis\u003c\/em\u003e is called the sensitive fern because it dies at the first touch of frost — not gradually, overnight. This one was picked in New Jersey while it was still whole, pressed flat, and carried across the Atlantic in an envelope. The single white frond on this sheet is what light made of it in an English garden in 1853.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eAnna Atkins made her images without a camera. She laid the dried plant on paper coated with iron salts, exposed it to daylight and rinsed it in water. What the plant covered stayed white; everything else turned Prussian blue. She had already done this several thousand times for \u003cem\u003ePhotographs of British Algae\u003c\/em\u003e (1843–1853), the first book in history illustrated with photographs. This sheet comes from what followed: \u003cem\u003eCyanotypes of British and Foreign Ferns\u003c\/em\u003e, 1853, made with her friend Anne Dixon.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThe shape.\u003c\/strong\u003e Most ferns in the album print as lace. This one prints as a single broad blade with deep rounded lobes and a stalk that curves like a drawn line — nearer to an oak leaf than to a fern, and one of the few plates in the album that reads as one form rather than a texture.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eWhat this is.\u003c\/strong\u003e A giclée reproduction of a cyanotype, printed with pigment inks. It is not a cyanotype and is not sold as one — a real cyanotype is a unique object made in sunlight, and these are in museums.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eScale\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cem\u003eOriginal, as the Getty catalogues it: image 25.4 × 19.4 cm \/ 10.0 × 7.6 in — The J. Paul Getty Museum\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003e30 × 40 cm \/ 11.8 × 15.7 in\u003c\/strong\u003e — Original size, 1:1\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003e40 × 50 cm \/ 15.7 × 19.7 in\u003c\/strong\u003e — Enlarged, 1.59× original\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eAt original size the sheet carries the cyanotype as it was made in 1853, at the width the Getty catalogues. Enlarged, the frond becomes a single white shape that reads across a room, and the grain of the coated paper becomes visible — a different picture, and a deliberate one. Both sizes are printed at 300 dpi, the resolution fine art paper resolves.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eOne honest note on the measurement.\u003c\/strong\u003e The Getty catalogues the image as 25.4 × 19.4 cm, a ratio of 1.31. Measured on the digitisation, the coated blue paper runs to 1.36 — it continues below the caption, where the catalogued image height stops. We reproduce the blue paper whole, caption included, and anchor the scale on the catalogued width of 19.4 cm. The printed sheet is therefore 19.40 × 26.35 cm at 1:1: the museum's width, the object's full height.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eProvenance\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\nAnna Atkins (1799–1871) and Anne Dixon (1799–1864), \u003cem\u003eOnoclea sensibilis, New Jersey\u003c\/em\u003e, from \u003cem\u003eCyanotypes of British and Foreign Ferns\u003c\/em\u003e, 1853; cyanotype, 25.4 × 19.4 cm.\u003cbr\u003e\nThe J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, object number 84.XO.227.53.\u003cbr\u003e\nGift from Anne Dixon to H. D., 1853 (album cover stamped «A. D. to H. D. 1853»); probably Henry Dixon; by descent to Miss Wedderburn; given to the Girls Friendly Society, Paris, 1932; Galerie Octant; Robert Hershkowitz Ltd.; through Daniel Wolf to the J. Paul Getty Museum, 1984.\u003cbr\u003e\nThe work is in the public domain worldwide; the Getty publishes its digitisation under Open Content.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThe print\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\nGiclée on 200 gsm FSC-certified fine art paper, twelve pigment inks. White border, optical centre. The paper tone of the original is kept, not corrected. Unframed. Shipped rolled in a tube.\u003c\/p\u003e\n","brand":"Museartis","offers":[{"title":"30 × 40 cm \/ 11.8 × 15.7 in — Original size, 1:1","offer_id":65776959029597,"sku":"MUS-035-3040","price":49.0,"currency_code":"CHF","in_stock":true},{"title":"40 × 50 cm \/ 15.7 × 19.7 in — Enlarged, 1.59× original","offer_id":65776959062365,"sku":"MUS-035-4050","price":59.0,"currency_code":"CHF","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1102\/7139\/8237\/files\/museartis-atkins-dixon-onoclea-sensibilis-plate.jpg?v=1788289490"},{"product_id":"atkins-dixon-osmunda-regalis-giclee-print","title":"Anna Atkins \u0026 Anne Dixon – Osmunda regalis, 1853 | Giclée Print","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eOsmunda regalis\u003c\/em\u003e is the royal fern, the largest that grows in Britain — two metres in a wet ditch, given years and no one to dig it up. What lies on this sheet is one frond, laid flat, its leaflets standing apart from one another like a diagram someone drew very slowly.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\n\u003cp\u003eAnna Atkins made her images without a camera. She laid the dried plant on paper coated with iron salts, exposed it to daylight and rinsed it in water. What the plant covered stayed white; everything else turned Prussian blue. She had already done this several thousand times for \u003cem\u003ePhotographs of British Algae\u003c\/em\u003e (1843–1853), the first book in history illustrated with photographs. This sheet comes from what followed: \u003cem\u003eCyanotypes of British and Foreign Ferns\u003c\/em\u003e, 1853, made with her friend Anne Dixon.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThe year this was made.\u003c\/strong\u003e The 1850s were the height of what the British called pteridomania — fern fever. Ferns went on wallpaper, on custard cups, on gravestones; parties went out with trowels and came back with the bog emptied. \u003cem\u003eOsmunda regalis\u003c\/em\u003e was among the species collected close to disappearing in parts of England. This album belongs to that craze and is the harmless end of it: the plant was picked once, printed, and is still here.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eWhat this is.\u003c\/strong\u003e A giclée reproduction of a cyanotype, printed with pigment inks. It is not a cyanotype and is not sold as one — a real cyanotype is a unique object made in sunlight, and these are in museums.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eScale\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cem\u003eOriginal, as the Getty catalogues it: image 25.4 × 19.4 cm \/ 10.0 × 7.6 in — The J. Paul Getty Museum\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003e30 × 40 cm \/ 11.8 × 15.7 in\u003c\/strong\u003e — Original size, 1:1\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003e40 × 50 cm \/ 15.7 × 19.7 in\u003c\/strong\u003e — Enlarged, 1.58× original\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\n\u003cp\u003eAt original size the sheet carries the cyanotype as it was made in 1853, at the width the Getty catalogues. Enlarged, the frond reads across a room and the grain of the coated paper becomes visible — a different picture, and a deliberate one. Both sizes are printed at 300 dpi, the resolution fine art paper resolves.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eOne honest note on the measurement.\u003c\/strong\u003e The Getty catalogues the image as 25.4 × 19.4 cm, a ratio of 1.31. Measured on the digitisation, the coated blue paper runs to 1.37 — it continues below the caption, where the catalogued image height stops. We reproduce the blue paper whole, caption included, and anchor the scale on the catalogued width of 19.4 cm. The printed sheet is therefore 19.40 × 26.60 cm at 1:1: the museum's width, the object's full height.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eProvenance\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\nAnna Atkins (1799–1871) and Anne Dixon (1799–1864), \u003cem\u003eOsmunda regalis, British\u003c\/em\u003e, from \u003cem\u003eCyanotypes of British and Foreign Ferns\u003c\/em\u003e, 1853; cyanotype, 25.4 × 19.4 cm.\u003cbr\u003e\nThe J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, object number 84.XO.227.42.\u003cbr\u003e\nGift from Anne Dixon to H. D., 1853 (album cover stamped «A. D. to H. D. 1853»); probably Henry Dixon; by descent to Miss Wedderburn; given to the Girls Friendly Society, Paris, 1932; Galerie Octant; Robert Hershkowitz Ltd.; through Daniel Wolf to the J. Paul Getty Museum, 1984.\u003cbr\u003e\nThe work is in the public domain worldwide; the Getty publishes its digitisation under Open Content.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThe print\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\nGiclée on 200 gsm FSC-certified fine art paper, twelve pigment inks. White border, optical centre. The paper tone of the original is kept, not corrected. Unframed. Shipped rolled in a tube.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n","brand":"Museartis","offers":[{"title":"30 × 40 cm \/ 11.8 × 15.7 in — Original size, 1:1","offer_id":65777137353053,"sku":"MUS-036-3040","price":49.0,"currency_code":"CHF","in_stock":true},{"title":"40 × 50 cm \/ 15.7 × 19.7 in — Enlarged, 1.58× original","offer_id":65777137385821,"sku":"MUS-036-4050","price":59.0,"currency_code":"CHF","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1102\/7139\/8237\/files\/museartis-atkins-dixon-osmunda-regalis-plate.jpg?v=1788290924"},{"product_id":"atkins-dixon-achrosticum-simplex-giclee-print","title":"Anna Atkins \u0026 Anne Dixon – Achrosticum simplex, 1853 | Giclée Print","description":"\u003cp\u003eTwo blades on two curving stalks, and nothing else. \u003cem\u003eAchrosticum simplex\u003c\/em\u003e is a fern whose leaf is not divided at all — no pinnules, no lace, no branching. On the sheet it reads as two brushstrokes, which is why this is the quietest plate in the album and the one that looks least like 1853.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eAnna Atkins made her images without a camera. She laid the dried plant on paper coated with iron salts, exposed it to daylight and rinsed it in water. What the plant covered stayed white; everything else turned Prussian blue. She had already done this several thousand times for \u003cem\u003ePhotographs of British Algae\u003c\/em\u003e (1843–1853), the first book in history illustrated with photographs. This sheet comes from what followed: \u003cem\u003eCyanotypes of British and Foreign Ferns\u003c\/em\u003e, 1853, made with her friend Anne Dixon.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThe name on the sheet.\u003c\/strong\u003e \u003cem\u003eAchrosticum simplex\u003c\/em\u003e is Atkins's own spelling, written on the plate in her hand, and we keep it as she wrote it. The genus is written \u003cem\u003eAcrostichum\u003c\/em\u003e today.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eWhy it looks modern.\u003c\/strong\u003e Nothing here was designed. The composition is where two dried stalks happened to lie when a hand put them down on coated paper, and the blue is what iron salts do in sunlight. A hundred years before anyone called this a graphic language, the process was already speaking it — flat colour, hard edge, no modelling, no shadow. The plate is a document that turned out to be a picture.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eWhat this is.\u003c\/strong\u003e A giclée reproduction of a cyanotype, printed with pigment inks. It is not a cyanotype and is not sold as one — a real cyanotype is a unique object made in sunlight, and these are in museums.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eScale\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cem\u003eOriginal, as the Getty catalogues it: image 25.4 × 19.4 cm \/ 10.0 × 7.6 in — The J. Paul Getty Museum\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003e30 × 40 cm \/ 11.8 × 15.7 in\u003c\/strong\u003e — Original size, 1:1\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003e40 × 50 cm \/ 15.7 × 19.7 in\u003c\/strong\u003e — Enlarged, 1.56× original\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eAt original size the sheet carries the cyanotype as it was made in 1853, at the width the Getty catalogues. Enlarged, the two blades read across a room and the grain of the coated paper becomes visible — a different picture, and a deliberate one. Both sizes are printed at 300 dpi, the resolution fine art paper resolves.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eOne honest note on the measurement.\u003c\/strong\u003e The Getty catalogues the image as 25.4 × 19.4 cm, a ratio of 1.31. Measured on the digitisation, the coated blue paper runs to 1.39 — it continues below the caption, where the catalogued image height stops. We reproduce the blue paper whole, caption included, and anchor the scale on the catalogued width of 19.4 cm. The printed sheet is therefore 19.40 × 26.93 cm at 1:1: the museum's width, the object's full height.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eProvenance\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\nAnna Atkins (1799–1871) and Anne Dixon (1799–1864), \u003cem\u003eAchrosticum simplex, Jamaica\u003c\/em\u003e, from \u003cem\u003eCyanotypes of British and Foreign Ferns\u003c\/em\u003e, 1853; cyanotype, 25.4 × 19.4 cm.\u003cbr\u003e\nThe J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, object number 84.XO.227.47.\u003cbr\u003e\nGift from Anne Dixon to H. D., 1853 (album cover stamped «A. D. to H. D. 1853»); probably Henry Dixon; by descent to Miss Wedderburn; given to the Girls Friendly Society, Paris, 1932; Galerie Octant; Robert Hershkowitz Ltd.; through Daniel Wolf to the J. Paul Getty Museum, 1984.\u003cbr\u003e\nThe work is in the public domain worldwide; the Getty publishes its digitisation under Open Content.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThe print\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\nGiclée on 200 gsm FSC-certified fine art paper, twelve pigment inks. White border, optical centre. The paper tone of the original is kept, not corrected. Unframed. Shipped rolled in a tube.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Museartis","offers":[{"title":"30 × 40 cm \/ 11.8 × 15.7 in — Original size, 1:1","offer_id":65777183719773,"sku":"MUS-037-3040","price":49.0,"currency_code":"CHF","in_stock":true},{"title":"40 × 50 cm \/ 15.7 × 19.7 in — Enlarged, 1.56× original","offer_id":65777183752541,"sku":"MUS-037-4050","price":59.0,"currency_code":"CHF","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1102\/7139\/8237\/files\/museartis-atkins-dixon-achrosticum-simplex-plate.jpg?v=1788291029"}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1102\/7139\/8237\/collections\/museartis-atkins-dictyota-plate-v2.jpg?v=1788263110","url":"https:\/\/museartis.com\/collections\/cyanotype-prints.oembed","provider":"Museartis","version":"1.0","type":"link"}