Photographic Reproductions in the Second Half of the Nineteenth Century. Photographs of Raphael’s Paintings in the Hermitage Collection

Marking the 500th anniversary of the death of Raffaello Santi, the Hermitage is rounding off the year with exhibitions devoted to the great Italian master. Over the course of five centuries, artists of completely different tendencies have measured their own work against Raphael’s legacy. It is not surprising that his works in particular with their harmonious composition were in demand as reproductions – made first by engraving, then by photographic means. The advance of photography made Raphael’s works even more recognizable and replicated on a large scale. Copies and reproductions of his works adorned not only the living apartments of palaces and grand mansions, but also the homes of ordinary people.

The new exhibition from the Hermitage’s Department of the History of Russian Culture tells about the art of photographic reproduction and continues a series of exhibitions devoted to the early history of photography. Visitors are invited to trace the evolution of the reproduction genre through the example of prints made by European photographers from Raphael’s works in the second half of the 19th century.

More than 40 photographs being presented for the first time make it possible to assess the quality of various printing techniques, to discover the difficulties that photographers of that period encountered, what technical and artistic tasks they had to tackle, and also to look at the great artist’s works through the eyes of a 19th-century viewer.

From the moment that photography was invented, the reproduction of works of art was regarded as one of the main spheres for its application. Shooting art for reproductions was regarded as one of the most difficult fields within the profession and good photographic reproductions were prized and quite often collected on a par with paintings and works of graphic art. The examples of photographic albums included in the exhibition tell about what became a popular craze in society in the second half of the 19th century. The exhibition features photographs of celebrated works by Raphael from the collections of Empress Maria Alexandrovna, the Counts Stroganov and Princes Yusupov, Duke M.M. of Mecklenburg-Strelitz and the statesman and public figure Piotr Semenov-Tian-Shansky. Photographic prints of works by Raphael became diplomatic gifts: the exhibition includes photographs of the Raphael frescoes at the Villa Farnesina that the Roman photographer Pietro Dovizielli presented to Emperor Alexander II.

The introduction of inexpensive prints in the carte de visite format in the mid-1850s made photography accessible to all sections of the population. Such small-sized prints reproducing works of art were exceptionally popular: they were bought by travellers, collected in special albums accompanied by written captions. Sometimes, when technical factors prevented them from taking pictures of original works by Raphael, photographers and publishers resorted to subterfuge and instead sold photographic prints of engraved reproductions of the paintings. In the exhibition visitors can see photographs taken both of Raphael’s paintings and of engravings of them.

The development of the reproduction genre was greatly assisted by the idea of allowing the general public access to museum collections that arose in the early 19th century. Photographs of artworks were in demand not only with tourists: researchers and art connoisseurs also made extensive use of them in their endeavours. The publication of photographic reproductions made it possible to study a particular work without even leaving home. Photographing art objects was practised most intensively in Italy. Catalogues issued regularly by the major photographic publishers (Fratelli Alinari, Giacomo Brogi, Fotografico Pietro Poppi) allowed people to order the photographic reproductions that they needed for their research. This made it possible to compare works belonging to different collections. Close-up views of parts of paintings were especially useful as they made it possible to examine details that went unnoticed by the naked eye. Prints from Italian photographic publishers are widely represented in the Hermitage. In the main they are mass-produced items aimed at a broad clientele, but they do make it possible to identify which of Raphael’s works were popular and frequently reproduced in the 19th century, such as Ezekiel's Vision, the Madonna of the Goldfinch or his Transfiguration.

The French photographer Adolphe Braun became one of the leading producers of photographic reproductions. In his desire to ensure the commercial success of his business, Braun reflected on the need to obtain stable prints that did not tend to fade. To solve the problem, his choice fell upon the new carbon method. By dint of long experimentation, Braun managed to achieve excellent results in the reproduction of shades of colour without having to resort to retouching the negative or the print. The quality of his prints becomes evident when one looks at the photographs of Raphael’s drawings that are astonishingly beautifully executed and splendidly preserved.

Between the 1860s and the 1890s, Braun carried out a project to photographically record Europe’s foremost museum collections. The exhibition includes photographic reproductions of Raphael paintings in the celebrated collections of the Prado, the Palazzo Pitti and the Victoria & Albert Museum. He was one of the first to photograph the Raphael frescoes in the Vatican, with the resulting pictures becoming a sensation of sorts. They revealed a large number of details that could not be seen in the dimly lit halls.

In 1882 and 1889, photographers from Braun’s atelier also worked in the Imperial Hermitage, where they took pictures of all the works by Raphael, including the Alba Madonna that is now in the National Gallery of Art, Washington DC.

The display also includes pictures and original negatives taken by the Hermitage’s first photographer, Feodor Lvovich Nikolayevsky. His works show not only the appearance of the museum’s interiors, but also the exhibits that were in the halls at that moment. Visitors to the exhibition can see how the works of Raphael and other Italian artists were presented in the Hermitage at the turn of the 20th century.

The exhibition curator is Irina Olegovna Terentyeva, a researcher in the State Hermitage’s Department of the History of Russian Culture.

The exhibition “Photographic Reproductions in the Second Half of the 19th Century. Photographs of Raphael’s Paintings in the Hermitage Collection” is part of Fixed Route No 2 (entry by the Church Staircase) around the Main Museum Complex.