Kunstreproduktionen digital. Zur Digitalisierung und Erschließung von 14 575 Kohledrucken der Firma Adolphe Braun et Cie.

The German Documentation Center for Art History – Bildarchiv Foto Marburg (DDK) conducted 2017 to 2021 the digitization and indexing project “KunstreproBraun”. The goal of the venture was to inventory, digitize, catalog, and make available online more than 14,500 carbon prints from the Alsatian photography company founded by Adolphe Braun in the mid-19th century. During the publishing process of the high-resolution digital copies, which allow the study of all objects in the database “Bildindex der Kunst und Architektur”, special emphasis was placed on the retrieval of information from historical sources. Through the OCR-based reading of sales catalogs, it is now possible not only to study the depicted artworks in the condition and time of their reproduction, but the data also allows insights into provenance and collection histories as well as the tracing of changing attributions. In addition, new observations concerning production processes as well as insights into the distribution history of the ‘Maison Braun’ can be gained.