BOTELHO, ALEXANDRA. "THE DURIEU ALBUM: EARLY NINETEENTH-CENTURY FRENCH PHOTOGRAPHIC TECHNIQUES AND STUDIES OF THE NUDE"

Abstract

The Durieu Album, containing 119 early paper photographic prints, is an example of French photography that dates from the mid-1850s and is attributed to photographer Eugène Durieu (1800-1874).  The work of Durieu has often been associated with the painter Eugène Delacroix; they collaborated on the production of photographs that were used by Delacroix as studies for paintings.

There are two extant Durieu albums, both containing primarily figure studies: one is at the George Eastman House and the other, at the Bibliothèque Nationale, belonged to Eugène Delacroix.  These albums are important examples of early French paper photography that contain some of the earliest images of the figure and give evidence of the influence of photography on painting.

The prints are in various states of preservation, coated with what appears to be a variety of varnishes and waxes.  Many prints in the album exhibit an uncharacteristic image transfer to the adjacent page not associated with early paper processes of this period. One of the goals of this investigation was to characterize through analytical means (XRF and FTIR) the composition of the image material of the photographs, to determine the over-coatings used and to ascertain the cause of image transfer.  This investigation will inform us as to the nature of the photographic processes used and what coatings were employed and might provide insights into the cause and mechanism of deterioration for the photographs in the album.  This knowledge would be useful in determining the authorship of the album, would inform us on the history of photographic processes and techniques, and could determine conservation approaches to this and other similar albums. The XRF and FTIR studies in this project were carried out at the Getty Conservation Institute under the guidance of Dusan Stulik.

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Alexandra Botelho was an ARP fellow from 1999 to 2001. This work was Botelho's capstone research project. Alexandra's choice of topic was influenced by her interest in books and graduated education in library conservation at the University of Texas at Austin. She is currently residing in the Phillipines.

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