HEINRICH KUHN Portrait of Children Bromoil 1905

HEINRICH KUHN. Walter and Hans Kuhn, c. 1905. 9x6.7" bromoil print on 9.3x6.9" paper. Printed c. 1905. Inscribed in pencil on print verso: HK29 / 108; inscribed in pencil: 1/2, 4C [partially cut off].



Rare and wonderful bromoil print by Heinrich Kuhn, the most important European member of Stieglitz's circle of art photographers in the 1900s.



Sold for the benefit of the Maine Coast Heritage Trust from the Estate of Jonathan Stein. Jonathan Stein was a collector with a fine sense of connoisseurship and with Daniel Wolf was a co-publisher of 4 Eliot Porter portfolios. He collected images throughout the history of Photography.



The Austrian photographer Heinrich Kuehn or Kuhn (1866-1944) was a vocal advocate for photography as an art form, held membership in a variety of camera clubs, and passionately explored new photographic techniques and processes.



Kuhn belonged to the so-called Viennese Trifolium, a trio of photographers who took up gum bichromate printing after its rediscovery just before the turn of the century, and in 1896 he was the first to exhibit gum bichromate prints in Germany. Kuhn was a deliberate photographer, sketching out his compositions beforehand and posing his children in a special "photo wardrobe" of black-and-white clothing. He developed a custom soft-focus lens and a hybrid gum-gravure process, which allowed him to produce the soft, textured prints favored by Pictorialists. He was also an enthusiastic adopter of the autochrome, an early color photography process and a master printer of numerous alternative processes such as here the bromoil process.



Alfred Stieglitz exhibited Kuhn's work at his 291 gallery and featured 15 of his photographs in the January 1911 issue of
Camera Work. Although the two remained close, their aesthetic interests diverged. As Stieglitz gravitated toward straight photography, Kuhn remained a Pictorialist, continuing to perfect handcrafted images of pastoral and family scenes.



Credit: https://archive.artic.edu/stieglitz/heinrich-kuehn/