Processes > Gum Bichromate Print

Gum Bichromate Print

1894–1930

Although employed largely by Pictorialist photographers between the 1890s and the 1930s, gum printing was invented in the 1850s. To make a print, practitioners brushed sensitized gum arabic mixed with pigment onto paper, then exposed the sheet to light through a negative in direct contact, hardening the gum. Washing in warm water removed unexposed portions while also softening the gum, allowing it to be manipulated; printing could be repeated multiple times with different pigments. The resulting prints are surprisingly painterly, an effect valued by the Pictorialists.

  • All
n
AIC_1949-830_T
Edward Steichen

Midnight Lake George, 1904

n
AIC_1949-823_T
Edward Steichen

Self-Portrait with Brush and Palette, 1902

n
AIC_1949-824_T
Edward Steichen

Portrait of George Frederick Watts, 1901, printed 1903

n
AIC_1949-825_T
Edward Steichen

Rodin, Le Penseur, 1902

n
AIC_1949-827_T
Edward Steichen

Portrait of Alfred Stieglitz, 1915

n
AIC_1949-828_T
Edward Steichen

Portrait of Clarence White, 1908

n
AIC_1949-829_T
Edward Steichen

Midnight Lake George, 1904

n
AIC_1949-867_T
Heinrich Kühn

Portrait of Stieglitz, 1900/10

n
AIC_1949-872_T
Edward Steichen

Young Tycoon (Self-Portrait), c. 1902

n
n
n
n