Mrs. Louis Kentin in Empire Dress
Original title: [Mrs. Louis Kentin in Empire Dress]
kurzbeschreibung
This albumen silver print from the 1880s shows Mrs. Louis Kentin in an Empire-style dress, presented by Thomas Eakins. She stands full-length out of doors, most likely photographed in a garden.
Description
A woman wears a long, plainly cut Empire gown whose wide hem falls past her feet. Her hands are folded in front of her body, and she looks slightly to the left. Trees and foliage fill the background, while the edge of a chair or bench appears at the left. Light strikes her from the front and picks out the outlines of the dress. Sepia tones govern the sheet, as is usual with albumen prints.
Context
Eakins, an American painter and photographer, worked experimentally in the 1880s and treated photography as an artistic means. The albumen process was then the standard route to making photographs. The exposure probably came about in his own circle, known for motion studies and portraits.
Impact
Quiet and fixed entirely on the sitter, the picture rests on its simple arrangement and soft light. The sepia tone lends it historical distance and a certain elegance.
Technique
For an albumen silver print, an egg-white and salt solution is coated onto the paper, binding the light-sensitive silver salts. The image was taken with a camera, and the positive made by contact printing.
AI-generated description text
Source: Metropolitan Museum of Art · Public Domain (CC0 1.0)