The Johnstone Album
Agnes Caroline Chamberlayne Johnstone
British, c.1845–1925
1868-84
A page from a Victorian family album: a sepia albumen photograph of two children in sailor suits pasted into the center of a page embellished with ink-drawn rope ovals and small maritime sketches.
You’re struck by the quiet formality of the two solemn children—matching sailor outfits and straw hats held beside them—framed like a portrait by braided rope ovals with a delicate ship vignette above and an anchor below.
The work illustrates how nineteenth‑century photography became a domestic, hand‑crafted practice, with commercial albumen prints personalized by drawing and watercolor to shape sentimental narratives of family, childhood, and identity.
Medium
Album of collaged albumen silver prints with watercolor and ink
Dimensions
11 13/16 × 9 7/16" (30 × 24 cm)
Classification
Department
Credit
Gift of Agnes Gund in honor of David Dechman
Accession
298.2021.24
Palette
Exhibitions
