This fascinating duo is made by Eugène Dumoulin (1844 - ca. 1926). The test print is a combination of two separate prints from the same negative. One cyanotype and an albumen print.

Dumoulin started his photographic work as early as 1860, when het was only 16 years old.
Around 1870, he began to take an interest in what would become a
essential quests in his career as a practitioner and inventor: rendering
colors in photography. He studied the "Loi du contraste simultané des
couleurs" by Michel-Eugène Chevreul.
Eugène Dumoulin published in the 1870s
several works that support the democratization of photography: "Manuel
élémentaire de photographie au collodion humide" (1874), "Les couleurs reproduites en photographie" (1876), "La photographie sans laboratoire" (1886) and "La photographie sans maître" (1890).

Eugène Dumoulin particularly favors the cyanotype process by which a print is obtained Prussian blue, and tries different coloring tests.

The print was probably made during the research for these manuals and coloring tests. On the left a cyanotype, on the right an albumen print of the same negative.

print ca. 6,7 x 13,7 cm
original cardboard ca. 8,8 x 15,3 cm

A large part of Dumoulin's archive is now in the BnF (Bibliothèque nationale de France).

👉 This cyanotype is part of the Bazar Nadar "History Class Collection".
Based on these unique images, we will tell you about the origins of the medium during workshops.