[Lumb Stocks]
![[Lumb Stocks] by John and Charles Watkins](https://images.artheonmuseum.org/met/ph/thumb/lumb-stocks-686089.webp)
Medium
Albumen silver print
Dimensions
Approx. 10.2 x 6.3 cm (4 x 2 1/2 in.)
Classification
Photographs
Department
Photographs
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
The Albert Ten Eyck Gardner Collection, Gift of the Centennial Committee, 1970
Accession Number
1970.659.750
Tags
Art Historical Context
In the 1860s, brothers John and Charles Watkins were prominent London photographers, renowned their crisp cartes-de-visite portraits of Victorian notables, from royalty to intellectuals. Their albumen silver print of *Lumb Stocks* exemplifies this era's photographic boom. Measuring just 10.2 x 6.3 cm, it fits the popular carte-de-visite format—a pocket-sized "visiting card" with a mounted photograph—that swept Europe and America after 1854, making portraiture affordable and collectible for the middle class. The albumen process, using egg whites to coat paper for exceptional detail and warm to...
About the Artist
John and Charles Watkins · 1840–1875
**John and Charles Watkins: Pioneers of Victorian Portrait Photography** John Watkins (1823–1874) and his younger brother Octavius Charles Watkins (1836–1882) were prominent British portrait photographers whose collaborative studio captured the luminaries of Victorian Britain.) Born in Raglan, Monmouthshire, Wales, John began his career around 1840, establishing a studio at 34 Parliament Street i...