Henri Becquerel
[Rays Emitted from a Radioactive Substance through a Slitted Screen]

Public Domain

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Images(2)

Artist Henri Becquerel French, 1852–1908

CultureFrench

Titles

[Rays Emitted from a Radioactive Substance through a Slitted Screen]

Date1901

PlaceFrance

MediumGelatin silver print

DimensionsImage: 3 7/16 × 4 5/8 in. (8.7 × 11.7 cm)
Sheet: 3 5/8 × 4 7/8 in. (9.2 × 12.4 cm)

Credit LineMuseum purchase funded by the S. I. Morris Photography Endowment

Object number97.259

Not on view

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Department

Photography

Object Type

PHOTOGRAPHS

DescriptionHenri Becquerel, who made this image by exposing a piece of gelatin silver paper to uranium salts, called his photographs “observations.” Becquerel came from a family of scientists who made significant contributions to the fields of electrochemistry, optics, photography, radioactivity studies, and quantum theory. His photographic observations were the first proof of radio-activity, for which he was awarded half of the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1903. This photograph, visualizing the radioactive rays that created it, registers imagery that lies far beyond the scope of the human eye, granting it a material presence.
Provenance[Robert Hershkowitz Limited, England, United Kingdom]; purchased by MFAH, 1997.
Exhibition History"The Abstract Impulse: Selections from the Modern and Contemporary Collections," Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, 3 February - 5 May, 2013.

“Shadows on the Wall: Cameraless Photography from 1851 to Today” The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, August 31– November 30, 2014.
Inscriptions, Signatures and Marks

In negative, recto, top left: A27-4-1901
Inscribed in pencil, verso: 15

Cataloguing data may change with further research.

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