The Madame B Album
Medium
Albumen prints with watercolor (in album)
Dimensions
29.2 × 41.9 cm (11 1/2 × 16 1/2 in.)
Classification
photograph
Department
Photography and Media
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
200967
Art Historical Context
Step into the intimate world of *The Madame B Album*, captivating creation by Marie-Blanche Henn Fournier from the 0s. This album, measuring 29.2 × 41.9 cm, delicate albumen prints—photographs produced on paper coated with egg whites and sensitized with silver salts, prized for their luminous detail and warm tones—beautifully enhanced with watercolor. Housed in the Art Institute of Chicago's Photography and Media, it exemplifies the era's fusion of emerging photography with traditional painting techniques. In the 1870s, as photography gained artistic legitimacy, women like Fournier often expl...
About the Artist
Marie-Blanche Hennelle Fournier · 1831–1906
Marie-Blanche Hennelle Fournier (1831–1906), known affectionately as Blanche, was a French artist whose life intertwined with the peripatetic world of diplomacy. As the second wife of career diplomat Hugues-Marie-Henri Fournier, she accompanied him on postings to Stockholm, Sweden, and later Rome, Italy, during the 1870s. The couple had a daughter, Pauline, born in 1855, whose portraits frequently...