Berthold's Gum Bichromates In/As Artistic Practice
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Tina Buh, Andrej Smrekar BERTHOLD’S GUM BICHROMATES IN/AS ARTISTIC PRACTICE Résumé bicromateé correspondent aux peintures de ses quatre amis au point qu’il est impos- Le procédé a` la gomme bicromateé était sible de dire ce qui était arrivé en premier. connu bien avant son popularization par les La comparaison des plaques de verre photographes pictorialistes vers 1900. Il était utilisées dans le processus de gomme au bi- particulie`rement proche des techniques cromate avec d’autres réve`le que les plaques néo-impressionniste, de Monet tardive ou destinées au procédé de gomme au bicro- divisionniste. Avgust Berthold (1880–1818) mate étaient surexposées. Ainsi, le proces- était un photographe slove`ne de renom- sus de postproduction identifie les inten- mée internationale, considéré comme le tions artistiques du photographe et de ses cinquie`me impressionniste de la tradition amis peintres. artistique slove`ne. Ses tirages a` la gomme Keywords: bichromate gum print, Slovenian Impressionism, Avgust Berthold, mutual inspiration Daguerreotype, puharotype, and the any other work of art.3 Soon, their claims to gum bichromate process art were negated by the extension of the me- dium to limitless reproduction of (almost) ike almost any great invention, pho- identical images. Even today, there is no uni- tography was invented in a search versal definition of the medium of photog- Lfor something else, a perfect repro- raphy. The Bressonian punctum disdainfully duction of an image in which a chemical relegates the dark room part of the process process would replace subjectively guided to artisanal execution. Nevertheless, there hand.1 Thus, the daguerreotype, as well as are photographers who extend the creative the puharotype,2 were unique and singular process into dark-room wizardry, using the creations deemed unrepeatable, just like negative, the fruit of the punctum, only as a primary source to interpretation that hypo- 1 S. BANN, Parallel Lines. Printmakers, Painters and thetically makes each work of art unique and Photographers in Nineteenth-Century France (New “unrepeatable”. Gum bichromate printing Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2001), 89–92. 2 The term has been coined from the name of Janez Pu- 3 ‘Images transparentes sur la verre par Pucher’, in: La har (1814–1864), Slovenian inventor of a particular and Lumi`ere, II, št. 37, Pariz (1852), 147; La Lumi`ere, II, št. 40, still mysterious process of photography on glass plate Pariz (1852), 160 ; M. KAMBIČ, ‘Izumitelja Janez Puhar in in 1842. William Talbot’, Sinteza, št. 28, 29, (Ljubljana 1973), 27–30. 113 Works_of_Art_FINAL.indd 113 15.11.2019 10:18:38 Works of Art on Parchment and Paper is part of a process most suitable to the ar- different pigments and tried out landscape, tistic intention of photography, because it architectural photography, genre, portrait, is finished in a darkroom by a prolonged and the nude in the open air. postproduction process. Known from the In 1904, he exhibited his Portrait of earliest years of photography’s history, it Jakopič in Belgrade.6 This “official” portrait was popularized after 1894 by pictorialist had several experimental predecessors dis- photographers.4 The gum bichromate pro- covered a few years ago in the Jakopič Be- cess allows the manipulation of light and quest. Berthold tried differently textured the selective treatment of details towards an paper supports, varying in grain in black articulation of the mood in postproduction and red pigment and a smoother paper with that does not necessarily correspond to a seemingly lighter red pigment. In contrast snap-shot document. The National Gallery to the black-pigmented image, red-pigment- of Slovenia has had the privilege of acquir- ed ones are less satisfactory. It is no wonder ing several bichromates in recent years but then that Berthold preferred black, grey, or above all to clean and conserve Berthold’s blue pigments. However, the red-pigmented photographic plates and make new prints portrait of Jakopič in an oblong format is a from them. beautiful document of the intimate friend- ship between the two artists (Fig. 1). In con- trast to the others, the portrait is extraordi- Berthold’s photography and Slovenian narily direct, informal, even relaxed and Impressionists thus a testimony of proximity of the two soulmates. Slovenian photographer, Avgust Berthold As a native of Škofja Loka, where paint- (1880–1919) probably learned the gum bichro- ers Rihard Jakopič (1869–1943) and Ivan mate process at the Höchere Graphische Bun- Grohar (1867–1911) lived at the time, while des-lehr- und Versuch Anstalt, department of Matej Sternen (1870–1949) stayed in the Photographie und Reproduktionsverfahren in nearby hamlet of Godešič, he worked close- Vienna in the 1902/03 academic year.5 It was ly with the Slovenian Impressionist paint- allegedly Rihard Jakopič (1869–1943), Slove- ers. Their work lends evidence to the cross- nian Impressionist painter and amateur pho- fertilization of painting and photography. tographer, who catalysed Berthold’s career as Jakopič and Sternen were amateur photog- a photographer. The school that stimulated raphers and used photography extensively experimentation ideally suited the obsessions as their working tool. It is evident that the of the young Berthold. Within three years, he painters also used Berthold’s photographs experimented with different plate sizes, with for their purposes, and Sternen might have utilized them even in Munich during his 4 The photosensitive property of the bichromates was known in the 18th century. Alphonse Poitevin applied it winter sojourns. One of the most impor- to photography in 1858 adding pigments to the colloi- tant Slovenian icons The Sower, 1907, by dal solution. An advanced gum bicromate process was introduced and popularized in 1894 by Pierre-Auguste Ivan Grohar was based on Berthold’s pho- Rouillé-Ladevéze, when he showed his prints at the ex- tograph. Berthold’s gum bichromate photo, hibition of the Paris Photo Club. It was in use until about exhibited in 1906, helped the painter to re- 1930, especially by the pictorialist photographers. G. BALDWIN, Looking at Photographs: A Guide to Technical solve a pictorial problem laboured on for Terms (Los Angeles: Getty Publications, London: British over a year.7 Coarse grain, light and shadow Museum Press, 1991), 51-52. C. JAMES, The Book of Alter- native Photographic Processes, Boston, 2015, pp. 58–61 6 First Yougoslav Exhibition dedicated to the coronation 5 Education in Munich and Frankfurt has not been cor- of king Petar I Karadjordjević. roborated. His inquisitive nature and the quality of his 7 t. breJc, “Groharjev Sejalec / Grohar’s Sower”, artistic oeuvre testify to self-education. Among other in: Slo venske Atene 1907-1991 / Slovenian Athens. things he constructed his x-ray camera himself. S. SOSIČ, (premikajoč se po polju slovenske umetnosti kot sejalec Avgust Berthold: fotograf z začetka stoletja,<Mestna / the motif of the sower a challenge to 43 contemporary Galerija, Ljubljana, junij–julij, 1997>, (Ljubljana:Mestna artists), <Moderna galerija, Ljubljana, 22.10.–24.11.1991>, galerija, 1997), 20. (Ljubljana, Museum of Modern Art, 1992), n. p. 114 Works_of_Art_FINAL.indd 114 15.11.2019 10:18:38 Tina Buh, Andrej Smrekar: BERTHOLD’S GUM BICHROMATES IN/AS ARTISTIC PRACTICE Fig. 1: Avgust Berthold: Portrait of Rihard Jakopič (1904), gum print, National Gallery of Slovenia NG F 213 contrast and softened drawing keen to the late Impressionist and Symbolist painting techniques lead Grohar to an equivocal ar- ticulation of the figure and the landscape to encapsulate the ideological identification of the land and the man who works it into an image of the Motherland. Fig. 2: Avgust Berthold: Devin / Duino, 1905, gum As for Berthold’s photography, we print, black pigment, Private collection should consider first the influence of con- temporary Western art that shaped the pho- Ljubljana, next to the new Palace of Justice, tographer’s vision. His Symbolist landscapes purchased with lottery winnings. His gum with cropped tree trunks correspond to the bichromate creations won him medals in compositions of Grohar but even more so international exhibitions in Brussels (1905), the ones by Matija Jama (1872–1947), who Brno (1907) and Oslo (1908). The First Ex- as the fourth Impressionist painter was hibition of the Slovenian Photo-amateur present in Škofja Loka only metaphorical- Club of Ljubljana in Jakopič Pavilion, 1911, ly through intense correspondence with marked his last public appearance as an Jakopič. Berthold’s gum bichromate pho- artist. His inquisitive spirit took him to ex- tographs make us more aware of the share perimentation with X-rays, and his lack of of Symbolism in Slovenian Impressionist awareness of the damaging effects of the painting which makes this local phenome- rays hastened his premature death. non so peculiar. In the Devin/Duino Castle To claim a predilection of the photo- print, Berthold’s trick was the transforma- grapher for dawn and dusk lighting effects tion of a daylight photograph into a noctur- needs some qualification.8 So far we have nal scene (Fig. 2). Berthold’s little bichro- been unable to identify Berthold’s plates mate was by far the most successful among used in gum bichromate process. However, the known images of the castle, such as a a careful comparison of the existing nega- photograph of Fran Vesel (1884–1944) and tive with the bichromate print of Devin/Dui- a painting by Ivan Grohar. The picturesque no lends evidence that the same negative tourist trap changed into a praying Sphynx looming large in the moonlight over the 8 SOSIČ, note 8, p. 41 S. SOSIČ, ”Fotograf Avgust Berthold, slovenski impre- Gulf of Trieste. sionist“ in: Slovenski impresionisti in njihov čas 1890– By 1905, Berthold established a pho- 1920, ed. by B. Jaki and others, <Ljubljana, National Gal- tographic studio in a newly-built house in lery, April 23, 2008–February 8, 2009>, Ljubljana, Natio- nal Gallery of Slovenia, p.