The Laundry
Medium
Albumen paper negative
Dimensions
Image: 5 13/16 × 5 5/16 in. (14.7 × 13.5 cm)
Classification
Negatives
Department
Photographs
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Gilman Collection, Purchase, Ann Tenenbaum and Thomas H. Lee Gift, 2005
Accession Number
2005.100.1240
Tags
Art Historical Context
Step into the dawn of photography with *The Laundry* (1840s), a pioneering albumen paper negative French photographer Louis-Adol Humbert de Molard Captured in the medium's infancy—just a decade after Louis Daguerre and William Henry Fox Talbot unveiled their processes—this 5 13/16 × 5 5/16 in. image exemplifies early experimental techniques. Humbert de Mol, active in Normandy, used albumen-sensitized paper to create detailed negatives, a fragile precursor to modern film that allowed multiple prints from a single exposure. The scene hums with everyday rural life: women at work washing and hang...