Description:
A collection of glass-plate slides taken by Deerfield artist, James Wells Champney, arranged by different subjects. 154 in total.
Label Text:
Champney Exhibition: Champney continually experimented with photography, often as reference material for his paintings or pastels. More than 100 glass-plate negatives survive and reveal how he used photography to inspire his pastel work. This specific slide of a woman dressed in “Oriental” costume corresponds to a pastel he completed around 1890, in which he dressed his model in a similar garment (seen in this exhibition). In this photograph, the model smiles through the gauze-like material and tilts her head back, bedecked in a gold coin necklace and headwrap.
The glass-plate slide captures one of Champney’s frequent models in his New York studio. This young woman appears frequently in different guises within the artist’s photographs. Here she wears a ribbon around her hair, similar to some of his pastels of models in classical dress. Champney took pictures as part of his artistic process and lectured on photography as an art form, and also belonged to the Camera Club in New York. While this glass-plate slide likely used for the artist’s own study rather than his public lectures, Champney experimented with the medium to explore different poses, costumes, and appearances for his female sitters, all of which could be perfected in the final pastel.
Subjects:
Glass Link to share this object record:
https://museums.fivecolleges.edu/detail.php?t=objects&type=ext&id_number=HD+2013.807 |
