Fotoreproductie van een tekening of schilderij van een poortje tussen twee straten before 1900

This is Robert Demachy’s photogravure of a gateway between two streets. It is currently held in the Rijksmuseum. Photogravure was one of the first processes for printing photographs, and as such it was often used in the service of institutions. This image appears in a book alongside others of its kind, its reproduction hinting at the increasing democratization of art. It speaks to the changing place of photography, as it went from being seen as a purely technical tool to a medium that could, in its own way, emulate the qualities of painting. Demachy was an important figure in the Pictorialist movement. This movement did not believe that photography should simply represent the real world, but rather create aesthetic effects. This photograph embodies this ethos. It attempts to use the same principles of light and composition as a painting. We might think about the status of this reproduction and its relationship to the art world. What was being said about the medium of photography at the time, and how did this affect the institutions of art? Scholarly articles, books, and exhibition catalogs could help us understand more about the cultural context.