Bonnemaisonia asparagoides
ca. 1853
Medium
Cyanotype
Dimensions
Image: 25.3 x 20 cm (9 15/16 x 7 7/8 in.)
Classification
Photographs
Department
Photographs
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Gilman Collection, Purchase, The Horace W. Goldsmith Foundation Gift, through Joyce and Robert Menschel, 2005
Accession Number
2005.100.557 (85)
Art Historical Context
Anna Atkins's *Bonnemaisoniaagoides*, created around 1853, is a stunning cyanotype photogram capturing the delicate fronds of this red seaweed species. Atkins, a pioneering British photographer botanist, produced these images by placing actual specimens directly on light-sensitive paper coated with ferric ammonium citrate and potassium ferricyanide—a process invented by Sir John Herschel in1842. Exposed to sunlight, the areas shielded by the algae remained white, while the rest turned a vivid Prussian blue, yielding ethereal, camera-less impressions that blend scientific precision with artisti...
About the Artist
Anna Atkins
Anna Atkins (née Children), born on March 16, 1799, in Tonbridge, Kent, England, grew up immersed in the world of science thanks to her father, John George Children, a prominent chemist, zoologist, and curator at the British Museum. After her mother Hester's death shortly after childbirth in 1800, Anna formed a close bond with her father, receiving an exceptional scientific education rare for wome...