Because of their fragility, they had never previously left storage. A newly developed technique finally gave the Kunstmuseum Den Haag and Leiden University the confidence to display them: for one week, three original autochromes from Leiden University’s historic photography collection were shown in the exhibition ‘Kleur ontketend’ (‘Color Unleashed’). It was a first for the Netherlands.
Maria Wilhelmina Zweers (the photographer’s daughter), 1905-1910, autochrome plate, 18.0 x 12.9 cm (glass plate dimensions; image 17.0 x 12.0 cm), Leiden University Libraries collection, inv. no. PK-F-64.18
The new technique was developed by the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and was used in the Netherlands for the first time by Katrin Pietsch, a photograph conservator at the Nederlands Fotomuseum, and Maartje van den Heuvel, curator of photography at Leiden University Libraries. The plates were displayed in a special low-oxygen enclosure and checked daily. After October 11, the original autochromes were to be replaced by exhibition prints for the remainder of the exhibition.
The autochrome is one of the earliest color photography processes. According to curator Doede Hardeman, it fits perfectly with the spirit of the brief period before World War I, when both technology and painting were developing at a rapid pace. “We are naturally accustomed to black-and-white images from that era, and plenty of them will also be on view in the exhibition. But when you come face to face with these very first color photographs, it is as if you are being drawn into that time. An incredible experience!”
photo: untitled, 1905-1910, autochrome plate, 18.0 x 12.9 cm (glass plate dimensions; image 17.0 x 12.0 cm), Leiden University Libraries collection, inv. no. PK-F-64.24
Leiden University’s photography collection contains more than 200 autochromes. The makers of most of them are unknown. The three autochromes shown in Kleur ontketend were made by photographer Berend Zweers (1872-1946), one of the few photographers of his time to present himself as an artist.
