Anna Atkins, Polysiphonia fastigiata, 1853 — the cyanotype leaf reproduced whole, five white tufts of red alga on Prussian blue with her handwritten species name

Anna Atkins – Polysiphonia fastigiata, 1853 | Giclée Print

30 × 40 cm / 11.8 × 15.7 in — Original size, 1:1
CHF 49.00
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Anna Atkins, Polysiphonia fastigiata, 1853 — the cyanotype leaf reproduced whole, five white tufts of red alga on Prussian blue with her handwritten species name
  • Anna Atkins, Polysiphonia fastigiata, 1853 — the cyanotype leaf reproduced whole, five white tufts of red alga on Prussian blue with her handwritten species name
  • Anna Atkins's Polysiphonia fastigiata as a 50 × 70 cm giclée print, unframed, hung 25 cm above a 140 cm sideboard
  • Detail at actual print size: the hair-fine branches of Polysiphonia fastigiata and the paper grain of the 1853 cyanotype
  • The 30 × 40 cm giclée print of Anna Atkins's Polysiphonia fastigiata, unframed, shown flat with its white border
  • The enlarged 50 × 70 cm giclée print of Polysiphonia fastigiata, unframed, shown flat with its white border
  • Anna Atkins, Polysiphonia fastigiata, 1853 — the cyanotype leaf reproduced whole, five white tufts of red alga on Prussian blue with her handwritten species name
  • Anna Atkins's Polysiphonia fastigiata as a 50 × 70 cm giclée print, unframed, hung 25 cm above a 140 cm sideboard
  • Detail at actual print size: the hair-fine branches of Polysiphonia fastigiata and the paper grain of the 1853 cyanotype
  • The 30 × 40 cm giclée print of Anna Atkins's Polysiphonia fastigiata, unframed, shown flat with its white border
  • The enlarged 50 × 70 cm giclée print of Polysiphonia fastigiata, unframed, shown flat with its white border
Anna Atkins – Polysiphonia fastigiata, 1853 | Giclée Print

Anna Atkins – Polysiphonia fastigiata, 1853 | Giclée Print

CHF 49.00
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Polysiphonia fastigiata 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.

Anna 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 Photographs of British Algae: Cyanotype Impressions — the first book in history illustrated with photographs. Perhaps twenty-five copies were ever assembled.

What this is. 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.

Scale
Original leaf: approx. 27 × 21 cm / 10.6 × 8.3 in
30 × 40 cm / 11.8 × 15.7 in — Original size, 1:1
50 × 70 cm / 19.7 × 27.6 in — Enlarged, 1.97× original

The print
Giclée 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.

Provenance
Anna Atkins (1799–1871), Polysiphonia fastigiata, from Photographs of British Algae: Cyanotype Impressions, 1843–1853; cyanotype, leaf approx. 27 × 21 cm.

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

Further reading
Why This Print Is Not Bigger

The record behind this sheet — which impression we chose and why, what we measured, what we are allowed to sell, and the framing dimensions for this sheet.

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