Anna Atkins
Osmunda Regalis (Australia)

ArtistBritish, 1799–1871
CultureBritish
Titles
  • Osmunda Regalis (Australia)
Date1853–1854
MediumCyanotype
DimensionsImage: 13 3/4 × 9 5/16 in. (34.9 × 23.7 cm)
Sheet: 13 3/4 × 9 5/16 in. (34.9 × 23.7 cm)
Mount: 18 7/8 × 14 3/4 in. (48 × 37.5 cm)
Credit LineMuseum purchase funded by Mrs. Clare A. Glassell
Object number94.189
Current Location
The Nancy and Rich Kinder Building
Gallery 208
Exposé

Explore Further

Department
Photography
Object Type
Description

Like her friend William Henry Fox Talbot, the inventor of paper photography, Anna Atkins was a serious botanist who recognized the new medium’s potential to accurately record the form and structure of plants. Atkins used the cyanotype process, invented in 1842 by the scientist Sir John Herschel, which yielded prints in striking shades of Prussian blue. She placed her specimens directly on sensitized paper, covered them with glass, and set them in the sun; wherever the sunlight hit, the paper darkened, and wherever the plant blocked the rays of the sun, the paper remained white.


ProvenanceThe artist; Anne Dixon; [...]; [Sotheby's Belgravia, London, October 28, 1981]; [Robert Hershkowitz, England, United Kingdom]; [Fraenkel Gallery, San Francisco, 1986]; purchased by MFAH, 1994.
Exhibition History"The Artist’s Palette: Primary Colors on Paper," The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, 5 March - 15 April 2013.
Inscriptions, Signatures and Marks
Inscribed on image, lower center: Osmunda Regalis.
Inscribed in pencil, verso, bottom left: 2052
Inscribed in pencil, verso, bottom center: ANNA ATKINS [later inscription]
The cyanotype is not signed.

Cataloguing data may change with further research.

If you have questions about this work of art or the MFAH Online Collection please contact us.

Pteris aquilina
Anna Atkins
1851
Cyanotype
2004.2133
Hermon Atkins MacNeil
no date
Bronze
38.34
Cyan #6
Carol Marino
1982
Cyanotype
94.821
Self-portrait with Ancestor
John Dugdale
1990
Cyanotype with artist's frame
97.11
From the Lighthouse
Liz Ward
1992
Cyanotypes, photograms on nautical chart
92.498.A-.L
Elephant Ear
Debra Fox
1998
Cyanotype
99.86
The Roman Arena in Arles, France
Jan van Leeuwen
1998, printed 1999
Cyanotype
99.639
Untitled
Nadara Goodwin
1989
Cyanotype
98.612
October 31, 1987
Gary Bernard Porter
1987
Cyanotype with watercolor and colored pencil
92.212
To the Lighthouse (Bolivar)
Liz Ward
1988
Cyanotypes on book pages, 153 pieces
91.265
History Dress #1
Ginger Owen-Murakami
2007–08
Cyanotype, paper, and thread
2008.834
Of a Summer's View
Anna Strickland
1996
Cyanotype
2002.3474