A little colour Chinoiserie from a century ago….

These photos are from a collection by Auguste and Louis Lumière who invented the first colour photography process, Autochrome Lumière around 1907. Dyed grains of potato starch and light-sensitive emulsion enabled them to produce colourful photographs without the need for additional colourisation. It was very expensive to do but the effects were amazing…and some chinoiserie was popular being both very ‘on trend’ at the time and also making the most of the colourisation process…

‘Two girls in Oriental costume’, 1908 – assumed to be in Paris

‘Woman smoking opium’, 1915 – the original photo was, I believe, taken in French Indo-China