[James Baker Pyne]
![[James Baker Pyne] by John and Charles Watkins](https://images.artheonmuseum.org/met/ph/thumb/james-baker-pyne-685999.webp)
Medium
Albumen silver print
Dimensions
Approx. 10.2 x 6.3 cm (4 x 2 1/2 in.)
Classification
Photographs
Department
Photographs
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
The Albert Ten Eyck Gardner Collection, Gift of the Centennial Committee, 1970
Accession Number
1970.659.660
Tags
Art Historical Context
This albumen silver print the 1860s captures British landscape painter James Baker Pyne in a formal studio portrait. Created by the London-based photographers John and Charles Watkins, the image exemplifies the carte-de-visite format that became wildly popular during the era. Measuring just 4 by 2½ inches, these small, affordable photographs were often exchanged among friends and collected in albums, marking a shift toward photography as a democratic art form available beyond the elite. The Watkins brothers specialized in such portraits, employing the albumen process that produced rich tonal ...
About the Artist
John and Charles Watkins · 1840–1875
**John and Charles Watkins: Pioneers of Victorian Portrait Photography** John Watkins (1823–1874) and his younger brother Octavius Charles Watkins (1836–1882) were prominent British portrait photographers whose collaborative studio captured the luminaries of Victorian Britain.) Born in Raglan, Monmouthshire, Wales, John began his career around 1840, establishing a studio at 34 Parliament Street i...