Mikhail Piotrovsky
Mikhail Piotrovsky, the director of the State Hermitage Museum in St Petersburg, has responded to claims made by the London art dealer Andre Ruzhnikov that an exhibition held recently at the Winter Palace, Fabergé, Jeweller to the Imperial Court (closed 14 March), allegedly includes a number of “tawdry fakes”.
“Any exhibition at the Hermitage Museum is a research project. Technical analysis of the objects on display is part of the Hermitage’s Fabergé research programme. It is being carried out with the owners’ consent. The results of these studies and of panel discussions are to be published later,“ Hermitage Museum’s director Mikhail Piotrovsky told our sister publication The Art Newspaper Russia.
carte-de-visite.
Louis-Désiré Blanquart-Évrard invented the process using albumen (that’s the clear gelatinous part that surrounds the yolk) in 1850, and it became the most popular method for photographic printing in the 19th century. Paper was laid on a mixture of albumen and salt. When it dried, it made a glossy coated paper. The process could be used with any type of negative. It yielded precise images (partly because the image actually floated on the surface), and it was inexpensive. It was so popular that early on, commercial producers kept chickens on site!
It is an important vehicle for pigment.