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The glass plates of Ludwig Bickell: Invaluable sources for art history and the history of photography, for conservation and cultural studies

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 January 2020

Sonja Fessel
Sonja Fessel*
Affiliation:
Head of Photography Collection Deutsches Dokumentationszentrum für Kunstgeschichte – Bildarchiv Foto Marburg Biegenstraße 11 35037MarburgGERMANY Email: fessel@fotomarburg.de
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Abstract

The photography collection of the German documentation centre for art history, Deutsches Dokumentationszentrum für Kunstgeschichte – Bildarchiv Foto Marburg (DDK), comprises more than 2.8 million objects. These include roughly 500,000 glass negatives, of which nearly 3,000 were made by the first Hessian state conservator Ludwig Bickell between 1870 and 1901. These early glass plates show a large number of retouchings and traces of their production and usage. This makes them rich sources for photographic and art historical or cultural historical research as well as conservation studies.

Type
Research Article
Information
Art Libraries Journal , Volume 45 , Special Issue 1: Photo Archives , January 2020 , pp. 24 - 34
Copyright
© ARLIS, 2020

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References

1. On Richard Hamann, his usage of photography as well as the history of the photographic archive and with much further reading, see Matyssek, Angela, Kunstgeschichte als fotografische Praxis. Richard Hamann und Foto Marburg (Berlin: Mann, 2009)Google Scholar.

2. Hamann, Richard, Der Magdeburger Dom. Beiträge zur Geschichte und Ästhetik mittelalterlicher Architektur, Ornamentik und Skulptur (Berlin: Grote, 1909)Google Scholar, ‘Vorwort’. See also catalogue No. 63 (‘Der Magdeburger Dom. Denkmäler Deutscher Kunst’) of Dr. Franz Stoedtner – Institut für wissenschaftliche Projection. The Stoedtner photographic archive has been part of the DDK collection since 1977.

3. The Marburg print collection goes back even further. The first photographs were bought in 1889, when art history was being taught at the department of archaeology.

4. “Übernommene Archive,” Deutsches Dokumentationszentrum für Kunstgeschichte – Bildarchiv Foto Marburg, accessed 25 September 2019, https://www.uni-marburg.de/de/fotomarburg/bestaende/uebernahmen.

5. The photographs of Ludwig Bickell are accessible online via the database of the DDK ‘Bildindex der Kunst und Architektur’, https://www.bildindex.de/bilder/gallery/encoded/eJzjYBJS42IvyEzWTczJEeJPykzOTs3J0VHIKU0pz0yXYnb0c1FiLsnJ1mIAAOgQC08*.

6. “Datenbank geschützter Kulturgüter,” Kulturgut Schutz Deutschland, accessed 25 September 2019, http://www.kulturgutschutz-deutschland.de/DE/3_Datenbank/Kulturgut/Hessen/07852.html.

7. On Ludwig Bickell and his work as a conservator, see with much further reading Elmar Brohl and Gerhad Menk (eds.), Ludwig Bickell (1838–1901). Ein Denkmalpfleger der Ersten Stunde (Stuttgart: Theiss, 2005). Ulrich Großmann has published a short article on the photographer Ludwig Bickell: Großmann, Ulrich, “Ludwig Bickell als Fotograf,” Fotogeschichte 3, no. 10 (1983): 3–12Google Scholar.

8. Otto Brinkmann, “Geschichten um den Alten am Kalbstor,” Aus der Vergangenheit unserer Heimat. Geschichts-Beilage der Oberhessischen Presse, 17 October 1951, 2. Menk, Gerhard, “Ein ‘antiquitätischer Herr’. Leben und Werk des hessischen Denkmalpflegers und technischen Pioniers Ludwig Bickell (1838–1901),” in Ludwig Bickell (1838–1901). Ein Denkmalpfleger der Ersten Stunde, eds. Brohl, Elmar and Menk, Gerhard (Stuttgart: Theiss, 2005), 13–111Google Scholar.

9. Menk, “Ein ‘antiquitätischer Herr,’” 13–111.

10. “Museum für Kunst und Kulturgeschichte”, Philipps-Universität Marburg, accessed 25 September 2019, https://www.uni-marburg.de/de/museum.

11. “Wet plate collodion,” in Graphics Atlas, accessed 25 September 2019, http://www.graphicsatlas.org/identification/?process_id=352.

12. Hessisches Staatsarchiv Marburg (HStAM), 340 Bickell, 261 “Geschäfts Kalender.”

13. Großmann noticed the relatively rare interior photographs, but interprets this as a mere selective choice. I believe that this is a question of time and patience.

14. HStAM, 340 Bickell.

15. On Bickell's architectural photographs, see Großmann, Ulrich, “Ludwig Bickell,” 5–12; see also his “Profane Steinbauten im fotografischen Werk,” in Ludwig Bickell (1838–1901). Ein Denkmalpfleger der Ersten Stunde, eds. Brohl, Elmar and Menk, Gerhard (Stuttgart: Theiss, 2005), 306–312Google Scholar.

16. Menk, “Ein ‘antiquitätischer Herr,’” 44.

17. Bauer, Hermann, “Aus der Lebensarbeit Ludwig Bickells,” Hessenland 49, no. 9/10 (1938): 219–222Google Scholar.

18. Advertisement, HStAM, 340 Bickell.

19. “Verzeichnis der photographischen Studien aus Hessen aufgenommen und zu beziehen von L. Bickell [,] Photograph und Conservator d. Ver. f. hess. Geschichte u. Landeskunde […]” (Marburg: Universitäts-Buchdruckerei (R. Friedrich), 1877), HStAM, 340 Bickell, 216. Here and below, the translations are the author's.

20. So far, only single prints have been found in collections, archives or libraries.

21. In early times, collotypes were often varnished with shellac or gelatin coating in order to make them look like real photographs. See Stulik, Dusan C. and Kaplan, Art, “Collotype,” in The Atlas of Analytical Signatures of Photographic Processes (Los Angeles: The Getty Conservation Institute 2013), 11Google Scholar.

22. A wonderful article on the retouching of a wet collodion plate is due to be published in the first issue of Rundbrief Fotografie in 2020: Keultjes, Dagmar, “Retuschiert und vom Alter gezeichnet. Ein Kollodiumglasnegativ aus der Sammlung der Photothek des Kunsthistorischen Instituts in Florenz,” Rundbrief Fotografie 27, no. 1, N.F. 105 (2020)Google Scholar. See also Kejser, Ulla Bøgvad, Pedersen, Karen Brynjolf, Christensen, Mads Christian and Johnsen, Jesper Stub, “Coatings on Black-and-white Glass Plates and Early Film,” in Coatings on Photographs. Materials, Techniques, and Conservations, ed. McCabe, Constance (Washington, DC: American Institute for Conservation, 2005), 108–132Google Scholar.

23. Bickell, L., L’Église et la châsse de Sainte-Elisabeth à Marbourg, Extrait de la Revue de l'art chrétien (Bruges: Desclée, De Brouwer & Cie, 1892)Google Scholar.

24. “Letterpress halftone,” in Graphics Atlas, accessed 25 September 2019, http://www.graphicsatlas.org/identification/?process_id=371.

25. Bickell, L., L’Église et la châsse de Sainte-Elisabeth à Marbourg, Extrait de la Revue de l'art chrétien (Bruges: Desclée, De Brouwer & Cie, 1892)Google Scholar.

26. Bickell, Ludwig, Hessische Holzbauten, vol. 1 (Marburg: N. G. Elwert, 1887)Google Scholar.

27. Bickell, Ludwig, Hessische Holzbauten, vols. 2 and 3 (Marburg: N. G. Elwert, 1891)Google Scholar.

28. E.g. plate 41 (timber heads, Frankenberg) from the 1891 publication (DDK, call no. 810.760), which was printed as an object in front of a white background as plate 15 in the 1906 publication.

29. See, for instance, plate 23 from the 1887 publication showing houses in Waldkappel that had beautiful clouds added to the sky in the 1906 collotype.

30. HStAM, 340 Bickell, 181.

31. Menk, “Ein ‘antiquitätischer Herr,’” 42.

32. Bickell, Ludwig, Die Bau- und Kunstdenkmäler im Regierungsbezirk Cassel. Kreis Gelnhausen (Marburg: N. G. Elwert'sche Verlagsbuchhandlung, 1901)Google Scholar.

33. “Gelatin dry plate,” in Graphics Atlas, accessed 25 September 2019, http://www.graphicsatlas.org/identification/?process_id=303.

34. See, for instance, negatives no. 811.334 or 811.999a. These negatives have an iridescent surface known more typically for collodion print out papers.

35. See, for instance, negative no. 811.060d.

36. See, for instance, negatives no. 811.045a through 811.045e.