Young Girl Asleep in the Window - Poetry Reading 1904 - Photogravure

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Emma Justin Farnsworth
Young Girl Asleep in the Window - Poetry Reading 1904 - Photogravure
1904

About the Item

Young Girl Asleep in the Window - Poetry Reading 1904 - Photogravure Enchanting image of a young girl dozing off after a morning of poetry reading, the diamond of the photographic arts is the photogravure by Miss Emma Justine Farnsworth (American, 1860-1952). A rich and complex photographic image using the photogravure printing process. soft hues and rich blacks with eye catching detail. Miss Farnswaorth signed her work J.G. Farnsworth which is for middle name Justine and her mothers maiden name Sara Visscher Gourlay (Farnsworth) Signed by impression lower right "J. G. Farnsworth" (for Justine Gourlay Farnsworth) "Copyright 1904" lower left “Of all photoengraving methods there is none which produces such rich and satisfying results as photogravure. The reason for this is to be found in the method of printing. It is an intaglio process and, therefore, the quantity of ink which is transferred to the paper can be considerable, and it shares with mezzotint among hand engraving processes the resulting richness of tones.” Captain Herbert Mills Cartwirght, 1930 The photogravure process had its beginnings in the mid-19th century when Fox Talbot devised a method of producing intaglio (etching) plates by etching through a bichromated gelatin film. In 1879 Karl Klic introduced the first efficient and reliable method of producing photogravures. Emma Justine Farnsworth was born on October 16, 1860, in Albany, New York, where she lived her full ninety-one-year life. Her father was a successful lumber merchant and Emma never married. Farnsworth, who had modest art training, received a camera outfit as a gift one Christmas and began to use it the following summer. The earliest known record of her exhibiting photographs is the second Joint Exhibition of 1888, where three of her pictures were seen. Over the next five years, she also was successful in two newspaper competitions. Her work consisted primarily of genre scenes and figure studies. Early on, Farnsworth took to illustrating books with her sentimental photographs. In 1892, In Arcady appeared, featuring six tipped-in photogravures printed on tissue, picturing classically draped women in the open air, with birds, harps, and children. This thin, but large-scale volume includes verse by the ancient Greek poet Anacreon and others, selected by Farnsworth. Two other titles with images by her were published—both children’s books, also using tissue gravures tipped onto the pages. In 1893, E. P. Dutton and Company issued William Croswell Doane’s Sunshine and Play-Time, which prominently credited Farnsworth on both the cover and title page. Her images, which were paired with Doane’s verses, show children pursuing leisure time activities such as swinging and gardening. Two years later, the same publisher put out Little Lad Jamie, a story by Mary D. Brine, with the very same set of eight photogravures, but no acknowledgment of their maker. Farnsworth drew the attention of Alfred Stieglitz. In 1893, she once again showed in the Joint Exhibition, organized by the country’s three leading camera clubs (in New York, Philadelphia, and Boston) and was the only woman to win a medal, prompting Stieglitz to consider her the country’s strongest lady amateur. In 1897, her work comprised the second in an important series of solo exhibitions presented by the Camera Club of New York, of which Stieglitz was a leading member. And three years later, he included an image by her as a photogravure in the January 1900 issue of Camera Notes, printed in brilliant orange ink. Farnsworth’s pictures were reproduced most frequently during the 1890s. They appeared in the American Amateur Photographer (1893, 1899), Photographic Times (1891, 1892, 1896, 1899, 1900), and Sun and Shade (1893). They were included in two deluxe portfolios of photogravures, issued on the occasion of Berlin’s annual International Exhibition of Amateur Photography in 1896 and 1897. Two years later, the Camera Club of New York also featured one of her gravures in its portfolio American Pictorial Photography I.

Creator:
Emma Justin Farnsworth (1860 - 1952, American)
Creation Year:
1904
Dimensions:
Height: 12.25 in (31.12 cm)Width: 14.25 in (36.2 cm)
Medium:
Laid Paper,Photogravure
Movement & Style:
Realist
Period:
1900-1909
Condition:
Paper has age toning over the image and mat window from prior mat. Looks excellent photographically. New acid free mat. (Toning to paper can be mitigated using paper conservation techniques by request.) Original period frame included as-is.
Gallery Location:
Soquel, CA
Reference Number:
Seller: RJA82481stDibs: LU54211059712