Anna Atkins and Anne Dixon, Athyrium molle, 1853 — the fern cyanotype reproduced whole, a white frond on Prussian blue with the handwritten species name at the foot

Anna Atkins & Anne Dixon – Athyrium molle, 1853 | Giclée Print

30 × 40 cm / 11.8 × 15.7 in — Original size, 1:1
CHF 49.00
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Anna Atkins and Anne Dixon, Athyrium molle, 1853 — the fern cyanotype reproduced whole, a white frond on Prussian blue with the handwritten species name at the foot
  • Anna Atkins and Anne Dixon, Athyrium molle, 1853 — the fern cyanotype reproduced whole, a white frond on Prussian blue with the handwritten species name at the foot
  • The Athyrium molle fern cyanotype as a 40 × 50 cm giclée print, unframed, hung 25 cm above a 140 cm sideboard
  • Detail at actual print size: the pinnules of the fern frond, the grain of the 1853 coated paper, and Anna Atkins's handwritten caption
  • The 30 × 40 cm giclée print of Athyrium molle, unframed, shown flat with its white border
  • The enlarged 40 × 50 cm giclée print of Athyrium molle, unframed, shown flat with its white border
  • Anna Atkins and Anne Dixon, Athyrium molle, 1853 — the fern cyanotype reproduced whole, a white frond on Prussian blue with the handwritten species name at the foot
  • The Athyrium molle fern cyanotype as a 40 × 50 cm giclée print, unframed, hung 25 cm above a 140 cm sideboard
  • Detail at actual print size: the pinnules of the fern frond, the grain of the 1853 coated paper, and Anna Atkins's handwritten caption
  • The 30 × 40 cm giclée print of Athyrium molle, unframed, shown flat with its white border
  • The enlarged 40 × 50 cm giclée print of Athyrium molle, unframed, shown flat with its white border
Anna Atkins & Anne Dixon – Athyrium molle, 1853 | Giclée Print

Anna Atkins & Anne Dixon – Athyrium molle, 1853 | Giclée Print

CHF 49.00
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Athyrium molle 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.

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. She had done this several thousand times already for Photographs of British Algae (1843–1853), the first book in history illustrated with photographs. This sheet belongs to what came after: Cyanotypes of British and Foreign Ferns, 1853, made together 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 museum catalogues it: image 25.4 × 19.4 cm / 10.0 × 7.6 in
30 × 40 cm / 11.8 × 15.7 in — Original size, 1:1
40 × 50 cm / 15.7 × 19.7 in — Enlarged, 1.56× 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) and Anne Dixon (1799–1864), Athyrium molle, from Cyanotypes of British and Foreign Ferns, 1853; cyanotype, 25.4 × 19.4 cm.
The J.

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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