Image

Adolphe Braun

Fruit Tree Blossoms, ca. 1854

Description

Maker

Title

Fruit Tree Blossoms

Year

ca. 1854

Medium

Albumen silver print

Materials/Techniques

Materials

Dimensions

Plate: 44.5 x 51.1 cm (17 1/2 x 20 1/8 inches)

Type

Credit

Mary B. Jackson Fund

Object Number

1997.20

Projects & Publications

Publications

Exhibition History

Exhibition History

Early Exposures

March 13 - July 19, 2015

Adolphe Braun, originally a textile designer from the Alsace region of France, left that field after the success of his photographic still-lifes. Braun’s still-lifes, some 300 of them, were created to aid designers and artists who were interested in accurately rendering foliage and flowers on fabrics and furnishings.

In one of these studies, Fruit Tree Blossoms, Braun carefully arranged a bouquet so that the flowers face forward while the overall design remains spontaneous and natural. Braun’s technical achievement—particularly the sharp contrast of the foliage against the neutral background—stood out among that of his contemporaries.

Image and Enterprise

February 4 - April 22, 2000

Flower painting arrived in France from the Netherlands at the beginning of the 18th century and was directly connected to the increased interest in horticulture of the time. The art was taught at the Musée Nationale d'Histoire Naturelle beginning in the late 18th century as a means of documenting botanic specimens with precision. Flower painters were employed to supply designs for porcelain factories such as those at Sèvres and other industrial centers. Braun's photographs with their lower cost and great accuracy, opened a new chapter in what was already a long history in the visual representation of nature.

Use

The images on this website can enable discovery and collaboration and support new scholarship, and we encourage their use. This object is in the public domain (CC0 1.0). This object is Fruit Tree Blossoms with the accession number of 1997.20. To request high-resolution files or new photography, please send an email to imagerequest@risd.edu and include your name and the object's accession number.