[Male Musculature Study]

Albert Londe|Paul Marie Louis Pierre Richer

ca. 1890 · Albumen silver print · Photographs

Author of a treatise on the importance of the camera in medical practice, Albert Londe declared, "the photographic plate is the scientist’s true retina." In collaboration with a laboratory director and professor of anatomy at the École des Beaux-Arts, Londe found that photographs intended for physiological analysis could also serve artistic applications. Their careful portraits of athletes—whether taken with stop-action cameras specially designed by Londe or in static poses such as the example here—were used in scientific texts on musculature and became templates for illustrations to aid artists in rendering ideally proportioned figures.

Artist

Albert Londe|Paul Marie Louis Pierre Richer

Date

ca. 1890

Medium

Albumen silver print

Department

Photographs

Credit line

Gift of Charles Isaacs and Carol Nigro, 2012