Gezicht op Dunkeld c. 1850 - 1880

Curator: Today we’re looking at "Gezicht op Dunkeld," a landscape photograph, most likely an albumen print, taken by James Valentine sometime between 1850 and 1880. It resides here at the Rijksmuseum. Editor: It has that wonderfully still feeling of old photos, doesn’t it? Almost melancholic. That huge tree looming over the scene is like a silent guardian. It makes me want to write a poem about it. Curator: The albumen print process involved coating paper with egg white, then exposing it to light through a negative. Notice the incredible tonal range and detail in the tree’s bark. Valentine's studio mass-produced these for the tourist trade. Think of it as the Victorian postcard. Editor: So, while it feels artistic, its origins are really in commercialism and accessibility. Still, there’s something grand and picturesque about it—the low horizon, the suggestion of rolling hills in the background. It fits right in with that romantic aesthetic of the time. Did people really carry these things around with them on their travels? Curator: Absolutely. Photography democratized landscape art, enabling ordinary people to acquire and possess views of faraway places. Valentine operated a large printing works employing many hands; examining this image prompts reflection on that labor system as well. We need to think of production alongside reception. Editor: True, it is also an artefact, an indicator of an entire industrialized world beyond the lovely rural scene. All of the materials sourced, the laborers in the factory, and then its ultimate purchase by a customer as a sentimental travel item. Makes me question what that all really says about “romanticism.” Curator: Indeed. Examining images like this helps us appreciate both the artistry and the socio-economic conditions of their creation and consumption. Editor: It definitely grounds that initial rush of sentimental feelings. Art always hits differently once you think about who really made it all happen.