Marble bust of Macrinus

The marble portrait captures the likeness of Macrinus, the short‑reigned Roman emperor of 217–218 CE, rendered in a classical style that emphasizes the ruler’s facial features and drapery. As a study object, the bust offers insight into 19th‑century neoclassical sculptural practice and the continued scholarly interest in antiquity during that period.

Laffon employed the wet‑collodion process, the dominant photographic method of the era, to produce a sharply detailed negative that was then printed on paper. The resulting image presents a clear tonal range, allowing the texture of the marble surface and the subtle modeling of the sculpture to be discerned with precision.

The photograph entered the V&A’s collection after the museum’s 1864 purchase of 500 works from Laffon’s series on the Campana Collection, facilitated by the agent Monsieur E. Cappe. The museum’s early director, Henry Cole, had advocated for photography as a teaching aid, and Laffon’s work was among the images used by scholars and students within the institution.

At the time of its creation, photography was emerging as a tool for documenting artworks, complementing traditional reprographic techniques. Female photographers like Laffon and Isabel Agnes Cowper played a notable, though often under‑recognized, role in supplying images for the museum’s educational and administrative purposes.

The bust’s photograph exemplifies the V&A’s long‑standing commitment to preserving visual records of historic objects. It also highlights the contributions of early women photographers to museum documentation, a legacy that continues to inform contemporary practices in art historical research and conservation.