Hand-Tinted Photographs

HAND-TINTING or HAND-COLOURING is defined as "the art of adding colour to an original black and white photograph, which was done before colour-photography was invented." Colorists used a stylus, pin, oil pencils or cotton swabs to manually apply colour pigments such as translucent oils, dyes or even tempera. 

DID YOU KNOW? ALL artwork in the "Hand-Tinted Photographs" collection are guaranteed originals, there are NO reproductions. All photos are of the actual artwork for sale. Please remember there may be shadows or reflections in the photos, but nothing is hidden, and I try to describe the item with accuracy. If you have any questions, or wish additional photographs for clarification, please “Contact Us” and we will respond immediately. Thank you for visiting.

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Did You Know?

The golden age of hand-tinted, or hand-coloured photography in the western hemisphere occurred between 1900 and 1940. The increased demand for hand-coloured landscape photographs at the beginning of the 20th century is largely attributed to the work of Wallace Nutting, a New England minister who pursued hand-coloured landscape photography when he opened a professional studio in 1904. He spent 35 years creating hand-coloured photographs, and became the best-selling hand-coloured photographer of all time. Many Canadian photographers followed, including our famous East Coast Marine Photographer, Wallace MacAskill.

Between 1915 and 1925 hand-coloured photographs were popular among the middle classes in the USA, Canada, Bermuda and the Bahamas as affordable and stylish wedding, holiday, friendship gifts, and vacation souvenirs. With the start of the Great Depression in 1929, and the subsequent decrease in the numbers of middle class, sales of hand-coloured photos decreased. By the 1950s, the availability of colour film all but stopped the production of hand-coloured photographs. The upsurge in popularity of antiques and collectibles in the 1960s, however, renewed an interest in hand-coloured photographs.