The archives

Richard Wagner – A Photographic Portrait from the »Corpus Imaginum«

The so called »Corpus Imaginum« is a truly unique portrait gallery. Franz Hanfstaengl collected and photographed over 900 contemporary portraits – amongst them etchings, engravings, lithographies and photographies. Some of the photos made available to him were rarities that had been sleeping in private ownership. Hanfstaengl made copper printing plates from these portraits by means of a specially invented technique. We still use these plates today-

Since 1855 many portrait photographies were made for the collection, since Hanfstaengl had gained a reputation as a photographer. Some of these portraits were taken in the most early days of photography and are examples of the most early photographs resp. daguerrotypes.