Artist: Anna Atkins (1799 - 1871)
Nationality: British
Movement:
Media: Photography
Influences:

Biography:
Anna Atkins’s interest in photography developed from her original career as a botanist. She learned the trade from correspondence with inventor, William Henry Fox Talbot and although she owned a camera, her preferred technique was photogenic drawing. She used the medium to record specimens and contributed the images to the reference book, British Algae: Cyanotype Impressions. One of the first books to use cyanotypes as illustration, the book was published in 1843 and created a reputation for the medium as accurate and appropriate for scientific publications. Atkins learned the cyanotype method of photogenic drawing from Sir John Herschel, a scientist and family friend, and continued to apply the technique to create many albums of botanical specimens.

Artworks in Museum Collections: (100)
Click the artwork titles below to see actual examples of artwork or works of art relevant to works by Anna Atkins.

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Anna Atkins Aspidium Achrosticoides (America) Cyanotype mounted on a heavier sheet circa 1850
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Anna Atkins - Myrrhis Odorata c. 1854 cyanotype Cincinnati Art Museum British
Museum of Fine Arts -
Anna Atkins, English, 1799-1871 Thistle (Carduus acanthoides) 1851-54 Photograph, cyanotype Image: 34.9 x 24.8 cm
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Henry Dexter - Samuel Atkins Eliot 1837 plaster bust Boston Athenaeum American
J. Paul Getty Museum -
Equisetum sylvaticum
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Lucius Barnes - Mrs. Martha Atkins Barnes 1834 watercolor and ink o Florence Griswold Museum American
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J. C. Moore Mr. Atkins and Miss Cross as Grumio and Curtis in The Taming Of The Shrew. 19th century
Museum of Fine Arts -
Elihu Vedder, American, 1836-1923 Lazarus Rising from the Tomb 1899 Oil on canvas 52.07 x
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Amedeo Modigliani - Anna Zborowska 1917 oil on canvas The Museum of Modern Art Italian
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Frans van Doornik - Anna de Peyster 1731 oil on canvas National Gallery of Art Flemish
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Anna Elizabeth Klumpke The Artist's Father oil on canvas 1912
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Anna Lee Merritt Ophelia Etching 19th century
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Andy Warhol - Baseball 1962 oil and silkscreen o The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art American
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Marsden Hartley - Himmel 1915 oil on canvas The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art American
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Robert Rauschenberg - Tracer 1963 oil and silkscreen o The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art American
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Frederick Childe Hassam - The Sonata 1893 oil on canvas The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art American
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Willem de Kooning - Woman IV 1952-53 oil, enamel and char The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art American
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Alberto Giacometti - The Chariot 1950 painted bronze The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art Swiss
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Jacques Villon - The Red Umbrella 1901 etching and color aq The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art French
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Charles Peale Polk - Anna Maria Cumpston c. 1790 oil on canvas National Gallery of Art American
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Cornelis Jonson van Ceulen - Anna Maria van Schurman 1657 oil on panel National Gallery of Art Dutch
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John Singleton Copley - Mrs. Anna Dummer Powell 1764 oil on canvas Cleveland Museum of Art American
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Thomas Sully - Mrs. Klapp (Anna Milnor) 1814 Oil on canvas The Art Institute of Chicago American
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Joshua Reynolds - Miss Anna Ward with Her Dog 1787 oil on canvas Kimbell Art Museum English
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Anna Vaughn Hyatt Huntington Greyhounds cast aluminum 1936
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Lucas Cranach - Portrait of Anna Buchner, nee Lindacker c. 1520 oil on panel Minneapolis Institute of Arts German
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Thomas Gainsborough - Lady Anna Horatia Waldegrave c. 1783 oil on canvas The Detroit Institute of Art English
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Hendrick Goltzius - Nox, Goddess of Night c. 1588-90 chiaroscuro woodcut The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art Dutch
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John Singer Sargent - Mrs. Cecil Wade 1886 oil on canvas The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art American
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George Caleb Bingham - Canvassing for a Vote 1852 oil on canvas The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art American
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Hermon Atkins MacNeil - The Moqui Runner 1897 bronze The Art Institute of Chicago American
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Claude Monet - Boulevard des Capucines 1873-74 oil on canvas The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art French
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Paul Gauguin - Faaturuma (Melancholic) 1891 oil on canvas The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art French
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Ann Atkins - Aspidium Lonchitis 1852-1854 Cyanotype Birmingham Museum of Art British
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Frederic Edwin Church - Jerusalem from the Mount of Olives 1870 oil on canvas The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art American
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Gilbert Stuart - Anna Maria Brodeau Thornton (Mrs. William Thornton) 1804 oil on canvas National Gallery of Art American
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Anna Mackova Bookplate: Jitcina Knizka 1931
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Johan Thorn Prikker - Dutch Art Exhibition in Krefeld 1903 color lithograph The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art Dutch
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Anna Elizabeth Klumpke Among the Lilies oil on canvas 1909
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Petrus Christus - The Holy Family in a Domestic Interior c. 1460 oil on wood panel The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art Flemish
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Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio - Saint John the Baptist in the Wilderness 1604-05 oil on canvas The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art Italian
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Anna Mary Robertson ("Grandma") Moses Belvedere oil on hardboard 1945
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Anna Elizabeth Klumpke Rodin on his Death bed black chalk 1917
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Anna Vaughn Hyatt Huntington Yawning Tiger bronze circa 1925
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Ipolito Salazar Anna Lithograph 19th century
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Anna Vaughn Hyatt Huntington Bust of Archer M. Huntington bronze 1927
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Pieter Tanje Portrait of Anna van Brunswyk, Luneburg ENG 1750
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Jan de Bray - Portrait of the Artist's Parents, Salomon de Bray and Anna Westerbaen 1664 oil on panel National Gallery of Art Dutch
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Lance Hidy Godine for Children (Anna reading) Screenprint poster 1982
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Anna Ticho Old Jerusalem etching 19th - 20th century
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Anna Ticho Rooftops etching 19th - 20th century
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Elizabeth Vigee-Le Brun - Portrait of Marie Gabrielle de Gramont, Duchesse de Caderousse 1784 oil on wood panel The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art French
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Anna Vaughn Hyatt Huntington Collis P. Huntington bronze 19th - 20th century
The Minneapolis Institute of Arts -
Artist: Lucas Cranach Title: Portrait of Anna Buchner, née Lindacker Date: about 1518 Medium: oil
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Joseph Badger Anna Porter Brown (Mrs. Nathaniel Brown) oil on canvas circa 1750
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Serge Ivanoff Mildred Anna Williams colored pencils circa mid 20th century
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Paine of Islington Anna Cora Mowatt 19th century
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Paine of Islington Anna Cora Mowatt Eng 19th century
Museum of Fine Arts -
Stanislas Henri Jean Cazin, French, 1841-1901 Farm beside an Old Road about 1890 Oil on
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Caro Weir Ely Portrait of Anna Weir Ely Etching 20th century
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Christian Albert Wortmann Princess Anna (Empress of Russia) 17th - 18th century
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Anna Airy The Cast of Dice (or The Game of Dice) etching 19th - 20th century
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Anna Pavlova Skirt from "Rondino" silk net, metal tissue, diamantes, and pearls early 20th century
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R. Persichini V. Virgo Maria Anna · Jesu de Paredes... Engraving 1645
Museum of Fine Arts -
Claude Monet, French, 1840-1926 Snow at Argenteuil about 1874 Oil on canvas 54.6 x 73.7
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Emanuel O. Rosales Anna Pavlova in La Mort du Cygne pewter, gilt bronze buttons 19th - 20th century
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Edward Anthony Anna Elizabeth Dickinson (1842-1932) albumen print 19th century
J. Paul Getty Museum -
Anna Pavlova and Hubert Stowitts in "La Peri"
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Victor Frisch Head of Anna Pavlova bronze on marble base 19th - 20th century
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D. Pegei Portrait Bust of Mildred Anna Williams gilt-bronze, Belgian marble 20th century
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Jacob-Ferdinand Voet Anna Caffarelli Minuttiba oil on canvas 17th - 18th century
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Johann Christoph Weigel Maria Anna Archidux Austria 17th - 18th century
Museum of Fine Arts -
John Ames Mitchell, American, 1845-1918 Moses in the Bulrushes about 1880 Oil on canvas 45.72
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Anna Pavlova Tutu worn in "Le Mort du Cygne" (The Dying Swan) net, goose feathers, and stone early 20th century
Museum of Fine Arts -
William Morris Hunt, American, 1824-1879 Anahita about 1878 Oil on canvas 60.96 x 51.43 cm
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Paul Hambleton Landacre Anna Wood Engraving 19th - 20th century
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Johann Martin Preissler Portrait of Frau Anna Magdalena Widmaenin Engraving 18th century
Museum of Fine Arts -
Sarah Wyman Whitman, American, 1842-1904 Autumn Marshes 1882 Oil on canvas 45.72 x 55.88 cm
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Angelica Catharina Marie Anna Kauffman Story Illustration 18th - 19th century
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Angelica Catharina Marie Anna Kauffman Story Illustration 18th - 19th century
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Angelica Catharina Marie Anna Kauffman Two men discussing a book Etching and roulette 1763
Museum of Fine Arts -
Samuel Edwards, 1705-1762 Gold mourning ring United States, Massachusetts, (Boston), about 1754 Gold Buhler, 1972,
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Thomas Lawrence Anna Maria Dashwood, later Marchioness of Ely oil on canvas circa 1805
The Metropolitan Museum of Art -
Anna van der Aar (born 1576-77, died after 1626), 1626 Frans Hals (Dutch, born after
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Angelica Catharina Marie Anna Kauffman Allegory of History Ink and wash on paper 18th - 19th century
Museum of Fine Arts -
George Fuller, American, 1822-1884 Negro Funeral, Alabama 1881 Oil on canvas 45.08 x 76.2 cm
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Angelica Catharina Marie Anna Kauffman Young girl seated, plaiting her hair Etching 1765
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Anna Lee Merritt Miss Ellen Terry as *Ophelia*, plate 10 in the book, The Etcher (London: Williams and Norgate, 1879), vol. 1 etching 1879
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Jean Simon Portrait of Princess Anna Sophia of Hanover to succeed on the throne of England after Her Majestie Queen Ann Mezzotint 17th - 18th century
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Anna Lee Merritt Mrs. Kendal, as the *Lady Giovanna*, plate 17 in the book, The Etcher (London: Sampson Lowä, 1880), vol. 2 [bound in same volume as vol. 1, 1879] etching 1880
Museum of Fine Arts -
Claude Monet, French, 1840-1926 Fisherman"s Cottage on the Cliffs at Varengeville 1882 Oil on canvas
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Nicolas-Eustache Maurin El Eccmo. SeÒor General De Division Antonio Lopez de Santa-Anna Lithograph 18th - 19th century
Museum of Fine Arts -
Chester Harding, American, 1792-1866 Judge Edward Hutchinson Robbins 1827 Oil on canvas 91.44 x 71.44
Museum of Fine Arts -
Chester Harding, American, 1792-1866 Mrs. Edward Hutchinson Robbins (Elizabeth Murray) 1827 Oil on canvas 91.44
Museum of Fine Arts -
John Miers, British, 1758(?)–1821 Portrait of a Man about 1810 Watercolor on ivory 5.56 x
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Anna Hunter - Recessional c. 1948-50 oil on canvas Telfair Museum of Art American
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Anna Massey Lea Merritt - Self-Portrait n.d. oil on canvas National Museum of Women in the Arts American
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J.C. Folkema Le mercure terrestre des amoureux..., forty-second plate in the book Il Callotto resuscitato (Amsterdam: Willem Koning, 1716) etching and engraving 1716
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Anna Mary Robertson Moses - Calhoun 1955 oil on pressed wood National Museum of Women in the Arts American
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Angelica Catharina Marie Anna Kauffman Shakespeare - Two Genlemen From Verona - Act V, Scene III. Line and stipple engraving with hand coloring 18th - 19th century

Artnews Articles and Exhibition Information: (13)
Click on any of the links below to read about artnews or exhibitions related to Atkins

Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art: Marsden Hartley: American Painter
Visitors to Marsden Hartley (1877-1943): American Painter, on view Oct. 11 through Jan. 4 at The Nelson- Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, Mo., will be able to bear witness to one of the most renowned American artists of the 20th century. ...
Michael C. Carlos Museum of Emory University: From Caligula to Constantine: Tyranny and Transformation in Roman Portraiture
The exhibition will be complemented by a variety of scholarly and educational programs. A catalogue accompanying the exhibition will consist of detailed entries on the individual objects featured in the exhibition, as well as sig...
Harvey Milk Institute: Call for Artists: Queer Photography Competitino
Artists are invited to explore this theme in a broad sense. Accomplished photographers from around the world are invited to submit slides of representative work. All photography-based works are welcome, with no limitations on technique. The 20...
Los Angeles County Museum of Art: Winslow Homer and the Critics: Forging a National Art in th 1870s
One of the most visible artists in New York City, Homer exhibited frequently at national and international venues including the National Academy of Design and the American Society of Painters in Water Color, and at prestigious private cl...
San Diego Art Institute: 45th Annual International All Media Visual Awards Exhibition
Over $5,000 will be awarded to the artist in this international show, including a Grand Award of $2,000, two Awards for Excellence of $1,000 and the John McKee Memorial Award for Figure Drawing / Painting. Returning to the show is Catherine ...
National Gallery of Art: THE GOLDEN AGE OF CHINESE ARCHAEOLOGY: CELEBRATED DISCOVERIES FROM THE PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF CHINA
The exhibition is sponsored by Eastman Kodak Company. After its showing at the National Gallery, the exhibition will be on view at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, 1...
Mountclair Art Museum: Paris 1900: The American School at the Universal Exposition
Works of art exhibited in Paris have been lent by museums across the United States and Europe, including Whistler's Symphony in White No. 2 from the Tate Gallery ...
Alexandria Lyceum: Horace Day: An Artist in Alexandria, 1967 - 1984
Day’s paintings of upper King Street, painted at first hand, reflect a sense of the grace and elegance of a neighborhood still in decline. “King Street was throbbing with vitality: neon signs flashed over crudely painted store fron...
J. Paul Getty Center: Photographers of Genius at the Getty
From Hippolyte Bayard to Diane Arbus, the influential pioneers presented here span more than a century of photography, from the earliest years of the new art form in the late 1830s to the late 1960s. Each photographer featured in the exhibition ad...
Estate Project for Artists with AIDS: First-time Ever Exhibition from Innovative Databank
A national exhibition program has been launched, with the first venue being Parsons School of Design, a division of the New School University, of an upcoming exhibition drawn from The Virtual Collection. The Estate Project’s Director, Patrick M...
Metropolitan Museum of Art: The Responsive Eye: Ralph T. Coe and the Collecting of American Indian Art
The exhibition was organized by The Metropolitan Museum of Art. All works in the exhibition are courtesy of Ralph T. Coe. Born in 1929, Coe was raised in Cleveland, Ohio. After graduate work in art history at Yale University, where his s...
Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art: Marsden Hartley: First Retrospective in over 20 Years
Widely acknowledged as the greatest of the early American modernists, Marsden Hartley (1877-1943) belonged to a circle of artists promoted by photographer and gallery owner Alfred Stieglitz that included Georgia O’Keeffe, John Marin, Arthur Dove, ...
Gerald Peters Gallery: Cast and Carved: American Sculpture 1850-1950
Over 60 artists will be featured in the exhibition including Augustus Saint-Gaudens, Frederic Remington, Paul Manship and Isamu Noguchi. Works on view range in size from tabletop to monumental, and are composed of a variety of materials, includin...

Further Artwork and Information:

Anna Atkins (Getty Museum)
BBC - History - Anna Atkins (1799 - 1871)
Anna Atkins (1799 - 1871) Biography, Artwork Images, Exhibitions, Reviews
Anna Atkins
The Pencil of Nature - Anna Atkins
ANNA ATKINS
V&A Exploring Photography - Anna Atkins
Visual Arts Resources: Anna Atkins
artnet.com: Resource Library: Atkins, Anna
A History of Photography, by Robert Leggat: Anna ATKINS

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