Photographs
The collection of photographs in the Graphic Collection, with around 22,000 inventoried prints, dates mainly from the 19th century. From 1855 onwards, photographic prints were purchased regularly and in large numbers at the Academy, so that by the turn of the 20th century the collection had grown to more than 15,000 photographs.
The aim and purpose of these acquisitions was to support the teaching and training of artists (women were not admitted to the Academy until 1921) at the Academy. Thus, prints with various motifs that could be used for artistic viewing, presentation and inspiration were united in a comprehensive visual teaching aid collection. As a result, there are above all large collections of views and architectural photographs of various cities or of places of cultural and historical interest, landscape, animal and nature studies, as well as countless photographs of works of art.
Even if the motif and not the photographer or the artistic quality was of interest in these acquisitions, there are still numerous prints by photographers such as the Fratelli Alinari, Ludwig Angerer, Victor Angerer, Ottomar Anschütz, Édouard-Denis Baldus, Luigi Bardi, the Bisson frères, Adolphe Braun, Andreas Groll, Bernhard Johannes, Hermann Heid, Josef Löwy, Johann Franz Michiels, Moriz Nähr, Carlo Naya, Giorgio Sommer, August Stauda, Gustav Völkerling, Josef Wlha and many more in the holdings.
The collection is supplemented by photographs acquired as part of artists’ estates, such as those of Theophil von Hansen and Carl Rahl.