Artist Index: Pictorialism

Photographer: Erwin Raupp (1863-1931). Houses alongside lake. 1904. Vintage gum bichromate print. Circa 40 x 30 cm. Signed and dated by the photographer in white paint in lower left corner, flush-mounted to board and framed under glass in original wood frame (some scratches).

Erwin Raupp was a court photographer in Dresden and a well-known portraitist. He portayed such renowned artists as Franz Lenbach and the writer Karl May. Towards the beginning of the century he worked in pigment processes, producing pictorialist images of high quality that could compete with those of his contemporaries such as Frank Eugene, Hugo Erfurth, Jacob Hilsdorf, Th. and O. Hofmeister, Heinz Kühn and Baron A. de Meyer. The gum bichromate process was invented circa 1855 by Alphonse Louis Poitevin (1819-1887), but it did not gain much notice until 1895, when Robert Demachy developed a new variant based on Poitevin's process and it soon became widely used by pictorialist photographers. – Foxing spots in upper sky area, some light discoloration in mid lake and lower area, slightly buckled, otherwise a rich tonal print in good condition (not examined outside frame).

Lit.: Fritz Kempe. Kunstfotografie um 1900 in Deutschland. Stuttgart 1982.

Photographer: Adolphe Braun & Cie. (attributed to). Reproduction of the painting "Verwundete Amazone" (Wounded Amazon) by Franz von Stuck. 1905. Vintage large format carbon print. 42 x 49 cm. Mounted to board.

A strong print in very good condition.

Photographer: Karl Müller, Memmingen. Portrait of Countess Friederike Fugger von Babenhausen (1887-1949) with her two daughters. Circa 1915. Vintage large format carbon print. 74 x 52,5 cm. Signed by the photographer in ink in upper right corner, flush-mounted to board.

Corners bumped (upper left corner with loss), a few nicks in edges, a few surface scuff marks, otherwise a strong print in very good condition.

Photographer: Hans Natge (1893 - after 1960). Scene from the film 'Das alte Gesetz' with Henny Porten. 1923. Vintage greent-toned pigment print on chamois paper. 21 x 29 cm (32 x 41,5 cm). Signed and dated (24) by the photographer in pencil below the image in the margin.

Hans Natge was one of the major German film photographers between 1920 - 1945. In his early work he incorporated pictorial aspects while experimenting with various pigment processes. His early film stills for Friedrich Murnau's 'Faust' (1925/26) are highly artistic and show his technical talent in creating the atmosphere of the film. The print offered here is one of the photographer's rare fine pigment prints. – Corners bumped, lower right corner with a few creases, otherwise a fine tonal print in excellent condition.

Lit.: Jürgen Trimborn. "Hans Natge und die Anfänge der Filmfotografie in Deutschland" in: Timm Starl (ed.). Fotogeschichte. Beiträge zur Geschichte und Ästhetik der Fotografie. Marburg 2000, issue 75, p. 33 ff.

Selection of Pictorialist views. Edited by Ernst Juhl. Title page, double-leaf text with 21 (of 25) heliogravures after gum bichromate prints by the members of the Gesellschaft zur Förderung der Amateur-Photographie, on plates in original canvas portfolio (rubbed, faded, soiled). Meisenbach, Riffarth & Co., Berlin, 1903 (50 x 34 cm).

This beautiful and technically brilliant publication is an excellent example of the high value art and pictorialist photography had at the turn of the century and is another one of Ernst Juhl's publications promoting quality amateur photography. – Extremely fine and strong tonal prints in excellent condition.

Selected Pictorialist images. 1910s. 15 vintage prints in various processes, most oil pigment prints. Various sizes between 18 x 12 cm and 30 x 22 cm. Most mounted to board/card, 7 signed by the photographer in pencil below the image in the margin/ on the mount.

Minimal traces of use, otherwise atmospheric prints in very good condition.