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Prado Unveils Historic Photo Archive in First Dedicated Show

The exhibition repositions the museum’s early photographs as a collection in their own right.

Overview

  • El Prado multiplicado opens in Room 60 of the Villanueva building with 44 original prints dated between 1863 and 1939 on view through April 5.
  • The museum highlights a corpus of more than 10,000 photographs that has been catalogued and published online under the HF signature after a dedicated recovery effort.
  • Curators present the images as a research resource that documents lost layouts, furnishings and decoration, supports restoration, and records works even before they entered the Prado.
  • The selection traces processes such as albumen, carbon, gelatin and phototypy while showing how postcards and standardized formats drove the Prado’s public diffusion.
  • Works by studios and photographers including Juan Laurent, José Lacoste, Braun, Moreno and Domenico Anderson underscore a collection that the director says gives photography full recognition at the Prado.