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
201066
Art Historical Context
Step into the intimate world of 19th-century amateur photography with *The Madame B Album*, by Marie-Blanche Hennelle Fournier in the1870s. This album, measuring 29.2 × 41.9 cm and at the Art Institute of Chicago's Department of Photography and Media, albumen prints delicately enhanced with watercolor. Albumen prints, made from egg-white-coated paper exposed to light-sensitive silver salts, were the gold standard for photographic clarity during this era, capturing fine details with a glossy sheen. Fournier's work exemplifies the rising popularity of women in photography, a field increasingly ...
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...