Vintage Photographs Colored by Hand

By Susan (tparty)

I have a fondness for hand-tinted photographs. I love their ethereal colors. Produced before the advent of color photography, these images combined the technology of the camera with the artistry of the human hand. The initial desire was to make the photograph as much like the original scene as possible, since color films had not yet been invented.

A Garden of Larkspur by Nutting.

I have a stash of these photos amassed over the last 30 years. A favorite one from my personal collection is shown above. It is the work of Wallace Nutting.

A couple of "non-Nutting" photos on the wall of my back porch.

Wallace Nutting (1861–1941) was an American minister, photographer, artist and antiquarian who is most famous for his hand-tinted pictures. He also was an accomplished author, lecturer, furniture maker and collector. His romantic images of the New England landscape were a great commercial success. They remain popular among collectors today.

1911 young lady admiring her photo by TheOldBarnDoor.

Most of my collection is by Nutting, but a few are by his contemporaries such as Thompson and Gibson. Nutting was widely recognized as the country’s leading producer of hand-colored photographs during the early 20th century, but he was by no means alone.

Bermuda hand tinted photograph circa 1920 by Sweetpearlvintage.

Throughout the country, literally hundreds of regional photographers were selling their own brand of hand-colored images. They were popular among the middle classes in the United States, Canada, Bermuda and the Bahamas as affordable and stylish gifts and vacation souvenirs. Many of these hand-tinted pictures were reproduced as postcards.

Woman and 3 fishes French photo postcard by FascinatingHobbies.

The golden age of hand-painted photography was from 1900 to 1940. By the 1950s, the availability of color film all but stopped the production of hand-colored photographs. The upsurge in popularity of antiques and collectibles in the 1960s, however, increased their interest.

1933 hand-tinted photo of Vivian in her garden by tparty.

Although Wallace Nutting was the most famous and bestselling photographer of this genre, other skilled hand-colored pieces can be found by E. G. Barnhill, J. Carleton Bicknell, Royal Carlock, David Davidson, Norman Edson, H. Marshall Gardiner, Gibson, William James Harris, F. Jay Haynes, Charles Higgins, Edmond Royce, Charles Sawyer, Fred Thompson and Stephen Willard.