Artwork
Various Phoenician Antiquities
Various Phoenician Antiquities is a photographic photography by the Impressionist artist Louise Laffon. It dates from 1864 and is held in the collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum.
About this work
Overview
The Victoria and Albert Museum began collecting photographs in 1852, becoming the first institution to do so, and displayed them publicly by 1858. This early adoption positioned photography as a key resource for the museum’s educational and administrative activities, complementing other reproduction methods used at the time.
Subject & Meaning
The work titled "Various Phoenician Antiquities" is a photographic record of artifacts from the Campana Collection, originally housed in the Musée Napoléon III in Paris. By documenting these objects, the images provided scholars and students with visual access to rare antiquities that were otherwise difficult to study directly.
Technique & Style
The photographs were produced by Louise Laffon, a French photographer active in the mid‑19th century. Laffon employed the contemporary studio and documentary techniques of the era, capturing the objects with careful lighting and composition to render details clearly for scholarly use.
History & Provenance
In 1864 the V&A acquired a set of 500 photographs from Laffon’s series through the agent Monsieur E. Cappe. These prints entered the museum’s National Art Library collection, where they were made available to faculty, students, and museum staff for research and teaching.
Context
Female photographers such as Laffon and Isabel Agnes Cowper played a notable, though often overlooked, role in the V&A’s early photographic program. Their contributions supported the museum’s mission to expand visual resources for art education, alongside the institution’s own photographic service.
Legacy
The Laffon images remain a valuable documentary record of the Campana Collection’s Phoenician pieces, illustrating the museum’s pioneering use of photography as an educational tool and highlighting the historical involvement of women in the development of museum photography.
Artist & collection
Artist
Louise Laffon (1828–1885), was a French photographer and painter. She was one of the first female professional photographers in France. She had a studio in Paris between 1859 and 1876.
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Bas-relief portion of a frieze of two draped females and an altar in terra cotta
Bas-relief of a geni and a lyre in terra cotta
Bas-relief of a portion of frieze of Eros with scrollwork in terra cotta
Marble sculptured fountain
Bas-relief portion of frieze of Genii with double flutes and lyre
