The combining of ink colors deep black with violet reinforces the melancholy mood of this female nude study by Belgian photographer Léon Sneyers, (1877-1949) whose model sits in the shadows with eyes closed.

Translated to “Art in Photography“, the Belgian publication L’Art en Photographie, which first came out in January, 1901, was the renamed continuation of the folio-sized plate work “Le Sentiment d’Art en Photographie“. It featured the work primarily of Belgian pictorialists who entered monthly contests on a given theme, and was published by Jules Liorel in Brussels. Printing the collotypes himself in various ink tones, many of these photographs are set within impressed window mounts on thin uncoated plate paper. Equal credit for himself as engraver in addition to a photographer attribution were printed on the lower margin of each plate like this example by Sneyers for each monthly issue. A bibliography states L’Art en Photographie was “undoubtedly inspired by “Die Kunst in der Photographie“, a German publication, and by “L’Art Photographique” published in Paris”- the observation made in reference to the fine-quality plates issued with it.

print notes recto: engraved below image on plate:

Léon Sneyers, INV. (at left)

Liorel, Sculp. (right)

ART EN PHOTOGRAPHIE, No 8  (lower left-sic)

Title of this work provided by this archive.