Anna Atkins & Anne Dixon – Achrosticum simplex, 1853 | Framed Giclée Print

Two blades on two curving stalks, and nothing else. Achrosticum simplex 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.

Anna 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 Photographs of British Algae (1843–1853), the first book in history illustrated with photographs. This sheet comes from what followed: Cyanotypes of British and Foreign Ferns, 1853, made with her friend Anne Dixon.

What this is. 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.

Scale
Original, as the Getty catalogues it: image 25.4 × 19.4 cm / 10.0 × 7.6 in — The J. Paul Getty Museum
40 × 50 cm / 15.7 × 19.7 in — Enlarged, 1.56× original

Provenance
Anna Atkins (1799–1871) and Anne Dixon (1799–1864), Achrosticum simplex, Jamaica, from Cyanotypes of British and Foreign Ferns, 1853; cyanotype, 25.4 × 19.4 cm.
The J. Paul Getty Museum.

Where this comes from
The museum file, the measurements, and what we are allowed to sell: the record for this sheet.

The frame
Giclée on 200 gsm FSC-certified fine art paper, twelve pigment inks, white border. Slim black aluminium frame, glazed with clear plexiglass instead of glass, so it travels safely. Print and frame ship together in one package and are assembled on arrival. Part of the Hotel Collection — volume pricing from ten pieces.