Autochromes - part 1

Edward J. Steichen, portrait of Alfred Stieglitz 1907 
23.9 x 18 cm 
Alfred Stieglitz Collection, 1955 
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

The Autochrome Lumière is an early colour photography process. Patented in 1903 by Lumière brothers in France and first marketed in 1907, it was the principal colour photography process in use before the advent of subtractive colour film in the mid-1930s.

Autochrome is an additive colour “mosaic screen plate” process. The medium consists of a glass plate coated on one side with a random mosaic of microscopic grains of potato starch dyed red-orange, green, and blue-violet, which act as colour filters. Lamp black fills the spaces between the grains, and a black and white panchromatic silver halide emulsion is coated on top of the filter layer.

Unlike ordinary black and white glass plates, the Autochrome was loaded into the camera with the bare glass side facing the lens, so that the light passed through the mosaic filter layer before reaching the emulsion. The use of an additional special orange-yellow filter in the camera was required to block ultraviolet light and restrain the effects of violet and blue light, parts of the spectrum to which the emulsion was overly sensitive.

Autochrome plates required much longer exposures than black-and-white plates and films, which meant that a tripod or other stand had to be used and that it was not practical to photograph moving subjects. The plate was reversal-processed into a positive transparency – that is, the plate was first developed into a negative image but not “fixed”, then the silver forming the negative image was chemically removed, then the remaining silver halide was exposed to light and developed, producing the positive image.

Each starch grain remained in alignment with the corresponding microscopic area of emulsion coated over it. When the finished image was viewed by transmitted light, each bit of the silver image acted as a valve, allowing more or less light to pass through the corresponding coloured starch grain, recreating the original proportions of the three colours. At normal viewing distances the light coming through the individual grains blended together in the eye, reconstructing the colour of the light photographed through the filter grains.

Wikipedia

This is part 1 of a 3-part post on Autochromes:

Autochromes from the U.S.A.

Alfred Stieglitz (1864 – 1946) was an American photographer and modern art promoter who was instrumental over his fifty-year career in making photography an accepted art form. In addition to his photography, Stieglitz is known for the New York art galleries that he ran in the early part of the 20th century, where he introduced many avant-garde European artists to the U.S. He was married to painter Georgia O’Keefe.

1907c Alfred Stieglitz portrait of Kitty Stieglitz
Art Institute of Chicago, IL

1907c Alfred Stieglitz portrait of Kitty Stieglitz
Art Institute of Chicago, IL

1907c Alfred Stieglitz, Frank Eugene
Yale Collection of American Literature, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library

1907 Alfred Stieglitz, Mrs Selma Schubart 
16.5 x 12.8 cm Alfred Stieglitz Collection 1955
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

1907 Alfred Stieglitz, Man in Red Sweater 
17.9 x 12.8 cm Alfred Stieglitz Collection 1955
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

1907 Alfred Stieglitz, Man in Red Sweater 
17.9 x 12.8 cm Alfred Stieglitz Collection 1955
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

1907 Alfred Stieglitz, Two Men Playing Chess 
9 x 12 cm cm Alfred Stieglitz Collection 1955
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

1910c Alfred Stieglitz, Emmeline O. Stieglitz
Yale Collection of American Literature, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library

1910c Alfred Stieglitz, Edward Stieglitz
Yale Collection of American Literature, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library

1910c Alfred Stieglitz, Hedwig Stieglitz
Yale Collection of American Literature, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library

1910c Alfred Stieglitz, Katherine Stieglitz
Yale Collection of American Literature, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library

1911 Alfred Stieglitz, Portrait of Kitty 
17.8 x 12.7 cm Gilman Collection, Purchase, Mrs. Walter Annenberg and The Annenberg Foundation Gift, 2005
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

1915 Alfred Stieglitz, Dorothy O. Schubartca
Yale Collection of American Literature, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library

1915c Alfred Stieglitz, Alfred and Emmeline O. Stieglitz
Yale Collection of American Literature, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library

1917c Alfred Stieglitz, Alfred Joseph Obermeyer and Katherine Stieglitz
Yale Collection of American Literature, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library 

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1910c Wladimir Schonin, Still Life with Egg

1915c Nathan Straus, Flora Stieglitz Straus
Yale Collection of American Literature, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library

1915c Nathan Straus, Flora Stieglitz Straus
Yale Collection of American Literature, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library

1915c Nathan Straus, Jacobina Staerk Stieffel
Yale Collection of American Literature, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library

French Autochromes:

1907 -10c Louis and Auguste Lumiere ( attributed to ) 
Young Girl with Roses

1907-10c Louis and Auguste Lumiere ( attributed to ) 
Couple Seated in Garden

1910 Anonymous - A French Soldier

1910c Anonymous - Woman in Historical Costume

1910c Anonymous - Woman in Historical Costume

1910c Jules Gervais Courtellemont, Dancers with Pink Flowers 
12 x 9 cm

1923 Jules Gervais Courtellemont, The Moulin Rouge, Paris

1930c Paris. Musée Nicéphore-Niépce, Chalon-sur-Saône, France

1918 Étienne Clémentel, Monet and his Garden 

Étienne Clémentel (1864 – 1936) was a French government official with a portfolio in economics and also a close friend of Prime Minister George Clemenceau. It was Clemenceau who took the lead (in 1914) encouraging Monet to paint several large Water Lily panels to be donated to the State. When Clemenceau visited Giverny in 1918 to choose the panels that were to be installed in the Musée de l’Orangerie in Paris, Clémental accompanied him and took these Autochromes.

1918 Étienne Clémentel, Monet and his Garden

1918 Étienne Clémentel, Monet and his Garden

1918 Étienne Clémentel, Monet and his Garden

1918 Étienne Clémentel, Monet and his Garden

1918 Étienne Clémentel, Monet and his Garden

1918 Étienne Clémentel, Monet and his Garden

1918 Étienne Clémentel, Monet and his Garden

1918 Étienne Clémentel, Monet and his Garden