The cover of a book with the title “Marsh Leaves” in the top left corner with blue stems spiraling to the bottom right corner and the author's name at center.
A black and white landscape with a dark mass of land with plants to the left and a diffused bright light to the right, reflected upon a calm body of water.
A black and white image of a house to the left of a calm body of water with a cloud of smoke coming from the distant bridge.
A minimal image depicting two dark islands and their calm, watery reflections.
A black and white image of a hazy, bleak landscape, with a broken down fence in an overgrown field and animals grazing in the background.
A figure opens a wooden gate near a dirt road in the foreground and a large dark tree in the background.
A black and white image depicting open water with a steamboat in the distance, surrounded by smoke and gentle ripples on the surface.
A black and white image depicting a landscape with sparse plants poking through snow in the foreground, a fence in the middle ground and distant trees and houses.
A hazy black and white image depicting a calm body of water with trees coming from the right side and a cloud of smoke rising from the background.
A black and white image depicting a calm river bordered by bare trees on each side with a small structure on the right.
A black and white image depicting a cluster of bare trees in the center of a snowy island.
A misty riverside with a structure made of nets stretched across poles at the shore. In the distance, there is a windmill to the right and trees to the left.
A black and white image depicting a landscape with sparse, leafless trees on a snowy field under a dark sky.
A hazy black and white image depicting an open farm pen with a large, dark bird-like figure in the center and the blurry form of a house in the background.
A black and white landscape with a tranquil body of water reflecting a grassy shoreline in the foreground and a small house set against a pale sky in the background.
A black and white winter scene depicting farm houses surrounded by trees and a tranquil river, with bare branches and plants in the foreground.
A black and white winter landscape with scattered plants in snow with a lone tree near a wooden fence off to the distant left.
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Peter Henry Emerson

Marsh Leaves

Maker

Peter Henry Emerson (British, 1856-1936), photographer
David Nutt (American, ca. 1746 - 1816), publisher

Title

Marsh Leaves

Year

1895

Medium

Materials/Techniques

Techniques

Materials

photo-etched plate

Supports

Dimensions

28.3 x 19.4 cm (11 1/8 x 7 5/8 inches)

Signature / Inscription / Marks

On recto side of front fly-leaf, in pencil, "$4500-- for RISD only $3500--".

Credit / Object Number

Credit

Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Gilman Angier in memory of Julia Angier Ewing and Colby MacKinney Keeler

Object Number

79.109

Type

Exhibition History

Process Work
Intersections of Photography and Print ca. 1825 to Today
Feb 01, 2025 – Jul 20, 2025

Label copy

Peter Henry Emerson’s preferred method for printing photographs in books was photogravure, even though processes like collotype and woodburytype were 

more commercially practical at the time. Emerson was interested in the expressive qualities that photogravure offered. He explained: 

For artistic reasons we are of the opinion that Collotypes, Woodburytypes, and all such methods, are undesirable; and this we say deliberately, after long study of the subject, for in supervising and choosing illustrations for the books which we have illustrated we carefully examined specimens of nearly all the photomechanical processes extant.

Capturing the Light
150 Years of Photography
Sep 22, 1989 – Nov 12, 1989
The Illustrated Book
Oct 21, 1980 – Nov 23, 1980

Image use

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Public Domain This object is in the Public Domain and available under a CC0 1.0 Universal (CC0 1.0) Public Domain Dedication

Tombstone

Peter Henry Emerson (British, 1856-1936), photographer
David Nutt (American, ca. 1746 - 1816), publisher
Marsh Leaves, 1895
Photogravure on paper
28.3 x 19.4 cm (11 1/8 x 7 5/8 inches)
Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Gilman Angier in memory of Julia Angier Ewing and Colby MacKinney Keeler 79.109

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