What type of picture or photograph is this?

we5inelgr · Oct 26, 2023

Hi all,

New to the forum here.

I'm going through some old family photos from my late aunt and scanning/digitizing them when I came across this picture.

It looks like it's a combination of some type of photo (for the head) and sketch (for the rest of the body and surrounding).

Does anyone know what type of photography/art this is called? This is from about 1900 to 1910 or so.

Thank you.

BrianShaw · Oct 26, 2023

Crayon portrait, I believe.

Welcome to the forum. I hope you are here to stay!

we5inelgr · Oct 26, 2023

BrianShaw said:
Crayon portrait, I believe.

Welcome to the forum. I hope you are here to stay!

Thanks for the reply Brian. Much appreciated!

Crayon portrait. Interesting! So this method can be a combination of picture and drawing?

Being new to me, I did a quick search on Crayon portraits. This is also called Photo-crayotypes?

So basically, this picture is a true (but weak) photograph of this person, but is "embellished" with color/texture/depth by an artist using charcoal or pastels?

jvo · Oct 27, 2023

prior to color film, black and white pictures were often hand painted and embellished with pencils, color pencil, paints and more.

in this image they seemed to have printed the head area, and held-back the light to the surrounding parts, then "colored" in the shoulders and clothing.

i wouldn't discard this even if you don't know the person in the picture - the fact that you have a name is important.

welcome to photrio

MarkS · Oct 27, 2023

I worked for a portrait studio that offered this service, circa 1980. As I recall, the practice was to make a light-toned b/w print on matte paper, that was the base for the 'artist' to go to work on (in this case with oil colors).
It was a very old-school technique even then; as I was mostly on the road, shooting high-school senior portraits, I never learned any more about the method.

we5inelgr · Oct 27, 2023

jvo and Mark, thank you both for the replies and information on this technique. I really appreciate it. Totally new to me, and now I've learned something about it.

And, b.t.w., the person in that photo is my great-great grandmother's older brother. Wow, all fascinating stuff!

Thanks again!

What type of picture or photograph is this?

we5inelgr

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