#lucyporter

[harvardfineartslib]

In honor of Photographer Appreciation Month!

Lucy Wallace Porter (1876-1962) became one of the most influential women photographers in the field of art history during the twentieth century. She was the wife of Harvard medievalist Arthur Kingsley Porter (1883-1933). Although her husband has traditionally been celebrated as a legendary scholar and photographer, recent research shows that Lucy Porter deserves most of the credit for the latter. Her work with a large-format camera began during their honeymoon year in 1912-1913.

Lucy Porter quickly mastered the mechanics of large-format photography, becoming the more proficient photographer of the two. During 1918-1919 she and her husband traveled in the régions dévastées of northern France, compiling inventories of damaged art works for the Commission des Monuments Historiques. While documenting ruined medieval churches she became chief photographer, “womanning” their two cameras, one of which was a smaller apparatus that could be hand-held or used with a tripod. Lucy continued in this role for her husband’s foundational Romanesque Sculpture of the Pilgrimage Roads (1 volume of text, 9 portfolio volumes, Boston, 1923), producing more than two-thirds of the photographs herself.

This collection of 1,500+ unbound photographic reproductions gave medieval sculptures dynamic afterlives, contributing significantly to the formation of the art historical canon during the twentieth century. Lucy Porter also made the majority of the images published in her husband’s Spanish Romanesque Sculpture (2 vols., Florence and New York, 1928). Our picture of Porter the scholar becomes very different if we realize that he often saw Romanesque sculpture through the eyes of his wife.

Lucy Porter had a sophisticated grasp of the art of composition and many of the images she produced display great originality in their design. She had studied at Columbia University’s Teachers College with Arthur Wesley Dow (1857-1922), one of America’s most prominent art educators of the era and the teacher of artists such as Georgia O’Keeffe (1887-1986).

In this image, Lucy Porter can be seen operating a large-format view camera at the bottom left.

Image: Church of San Pedro la Rúa, Estella (Navarra), cloister, detail of capital showing the Adoration of the Magi. 

[nikkithebanshee]

Found this podcast. Love it. #FingersOnBuzzers #LucyPorter #JennyRyan 🎧 https://www.instagram.com/p/CABPIDfFsez/?igshid=8pgy5ll8ykup

[alf-art]

Hi just wanted to say I've been silently appreciating your dav/cretia content for a...long while and I'm breaking the silence by saying how much I love it. Seeing it really makes my day. Thank you for posting art, any art at all actually because I really love your stuff

screams... thank you anon, this means a lot. most of the time i feel like i’m putting stuff out into the void that no one actually cares about, so this is so nice to hear ;__;

[harvardfineartslib]

There’s still time to catch our current exhibit, Camera Woman Along the Medieval Pilgrimage Roads: The Early 20th-Century Photography of Lucy Wallace Porter. It’ll close at the end of this month.

 This exhibition highlights the work of one of the most influential women photographers in the field of art history during the twentieth century, Lucy Wallace Porter (1876-1962), wife of the Harvard medievalist Arthur Kingsley Porter (1883-1933). Although her husband has traditionally been celebrated as a legendary scholar and photographer, recent research shows that Lucy Porter deserves most of the of the credit for the latter. Her work with a large-format camera began during her honeymoon year in 1912-1913, when she and her husband conducted research in northern Italy for his book on Lombard Architecture (4 vols., New Haven, 1915-1917).

Curated by Kathryn Brush, Distinguished University Professor, University of Western

Ontario, and Joanne Bloom, Photographic Resources Librarian, Harvard Fine Arts Library.

Image 1: Church of Saint-Pierre, Beaulieu (Corrèze), exterior, south side, tympanum of portal showing the Last Judgment

Image 2: Church of St.-Basile, Étampes (Seine-et-Loire), west façade portal, detail of archivolts

Image 3: View of ruins of church at St.-Thibault (Aisne), 14 May 1919

[harvardfineartslib]

“Come dipinge il sole”: Fotografia per i dilettanti, 7th edition (Milan: 1910). This manual was used by Lucy Wallace Porter in 1912-1913 when she took up large-format photography. Lucy Wallace Porter (1876-1962) was wife of the Harvard medievalist Arthur Kingsley Porter (1883-1933). Although her husband has traditionally been celebrated as a legendary scholar and photographer, recent research shows that Lucy Porter deserves most of the credit for the latter. Our current exhibit, “Camera Woman Along the Medieval Pilgrimage Roads: The Early 20th-century Photography of Lucy Wallace Porter” highlights the work of Lucy Wallace Porter, one of the most influential women photographers in the field of art history during the twentieth century.

Manuale di fotografia per i dilettanti Author / Creator Muffone, Giovanni. At head of title: Come dipinge il sole . Edition 7. ed. riveduta ed ampliata con 390 incisioni e tavole totalmente rinnovate. Published: Milano : U. Hoepli, 1910. Description: xx, 491 p. : ill. ; 16 cm. Italian 1910 HOLLIS number: 990051888100203941

[harvardfineartslib]

Camera Woman Along the Medieval Pilgrimage Roads The Early 20th-Century Photography of Lucy Wallace Porter

The new exhibition at the Fine Arts Library highlights the work of one of the most influential women photographers in the field of art history during the twentieth century, Lucy Wallace Porter (1876-1962), wife of the Harvard medievalist Arthur Kingsley Porter (1883-1933). Although her husband has traditionally been celebrated as a legendary scholar and photographer, recent research shows that Lucy Porter deserves most of the of the credit for the latter. Her work with a large-format camera began during her honeymoon year in 1912-1913, when she and her husband conducted research in northern Italy for his book on Lombard Architecture (4 vols., New Haven, 1915-1917).

In 1949, Lucy Porter gifted the photographs which she and her husband had made during their European journeys to the library of Harvard’s Fogg Art Museum. This collection, now the Arthur Kingsley Porter Teaching and Research Collection, Special Collections, Fine Arts Library, consists of 26,500 black and white photographs. Approximately 11,710 of these were made by the two Porters. Lucy Porter’s photographic representations not only insert the work of a highly accomplished woman into the historiography of art history, thereby revising conventional views, but they also provide precious documentation of European medieval art and architecture as it appeared in the early decades of the twentieth century and was experienced by the Porters. Many of the sites have since been altered through weathering or restoration.

This exhibit is curated by Kathryn Brush, Distinguished University Professor, University of Western Ontario, and Joanne Bloom, Photographic Resources Librarian, Harvard Fine Arts Library. Exhibition is open to Harvard community, and it is open during the library hours.

Image 2: Church at Perse, Espalion (Aveyron), exterior, south side, with Arthur Kingsley Porter studying the sculpted portal and taking notes

Image 3: Church of San Pietro Vecchio at Brusasco (Torino), view from the east. This was one of Lucy Porter’s early large-format photographs; it was published in Lombard Architecture

[harvardfineartslib]

We’re in the middle of preparing for the exhibition of photographs by Lucy Wallace Porter (1876-1962.) Here’s a sneak preview of some of the images!

“This exhibition highlights the work of one of the most influential women photographers in the field of art history during the twentieth century, Lucy Wallace Porter (1876-1962), wife of the Harvard medievalist Arthur Kingsley Porter (1883-1933). Although her husband has traditionally been celebrated as a legendary scholar and photographer, recent research shows that Lucy Porter deserves most of the of the credit for the latter. Her work with a large-format camera began during her honeymoon year in 1912-1913, when she and her husband conducted research in northern Italy for his book on Lombard Architecture (4 vols., New Haven, 1915-1917). Lucy quickly mastered the mechanics of large-format photography, becoming the more proficient photographer of the two. During 1918-1919 she and her husband traveled in the régions dévastées of northern France, compiling inventories of damaged art works for the Commission des Monuments Historiques. While documenting ruined medieval churches she became chief photographer, “womanning” their two cameras, one of which was a smaller apparatus that could be hand-held or used with a tripod.” – excerpts from an introduction for the exhibit by Kathryn Brush, Distinguished University Professor, University of Western Ontario.

[harvardfineartslib]

Camera Woman Along the Medieval Pilgrimage Roads The Early 20th-Century Photography of Lucy Wallace Porter

The new exhibition at the Fine Arts Library highlights the work of one of the most influential women photographers in the field of art history during the twentieth century, Lucy Wallace Porter (1876-1962), wife of the Harvard medievalist Arthur Kingsley Porter (1883-1933). Although her husband has traditionally been celebrated as a legendary scholar and photographer, recent research shows that Lucy Porter deserves most of the of the credit for the latter. Her work with a large-format camera began during her honeymoon year in 1912-1913.

Lucy quickly mastered the mechanics of large-format photography, becoming the more proficient photographer of the two. During 1918-1919 she and her husband traveled in the régions dévastées of northern France, compiling inventories of damaged art works for the Commission des Monuments Historiques. While documenting ruined medieval churches she became chief photographer, “womanning” their two cameras, one of which was a smaller apparatus that could be hand-held or used with a tripod. Lucy continued in this role for her husband’s foundational Romanesque Sculpture of the Pilgrimage Roads (1 volume of text, 9 portfolio volumes, Boston, 1923), alone producing more than two-thirds of the photographs. This collection of 1,500+ unbound photographic reproductions gave medieval sculptures dynamic afterlives, contributing significantly to the formation of the art historical canon during the twentieth century. Lucy also made the majority of the images published in her husband’s Spanish Romanesque Sculpture (2 vols., Florence and New York, 1928). Our picture of Porter the scholar becomes very different if we realize that he often saw Romanesque sculpture through the eyes of his wife.

Lucy Porter had a sophisticated grasp of the art of composition and many of the images she produced display great originality in their design. She had studied at Columbia University’s Teachers College with Arthur Wesley Dow (1857-1922), one of America’s most prominent art educators of the era and the teacher of such artists as Georgia O’Keeffe (1887-1986).

In this image, Lucy Porter can be seen operating a large-format view camera at the bottom left.

Image: Church of San Pedro la Rúa, Estella (Navarra), cloister, detail of capital showing the Adoration of the Magi.