Photographies

Portraits of the Emperor and Princess of Prussia

George Baxter (creator)

1855
21.0 x 16.5 cm
NE 1860 B2 A7 P75 1858 (Princess Royal, Princess of Prussia)
NE 1860 B2 A7 V58 1855 (Vive L'Empereur!)

Around the same time as photography’s discovery, George Baxter developed a process of colour printing known as chromolithography, which he patented in 1835. The portraits of the Emperor and Princess of Prussia seen here employ that process in order to create richly-coloured portraits that commemorate the powerful and the wealthy. In comparison to daguerreotypes of middle-class patrons like that of Mrs Morrow, these could be, and were intended to be, circulated widely in order to promote a public identity.