May 1907, and under a scarlet parasol, a woman pauses amidst clouds of apple blossom and cow parsley and buttercups. This represents one of the first colored photographs ever taken, an autochrome by Louis Lumière, who had patented the innovative process with his brother.
The art world was likely taken aback by this photograph, because most images before were in black and white, or blanketed in some other color, such as the blue color of cyanotypes. Of interesting note is the bright red umbrella that the woman is holding.
Why this color? It is feasible that Lumière was attempting to show the intense range of color that his process was capable of. Or it could be documentation of a member of the French upper classes enjoying the solitude of her estate, away from the chaos of Paris and its lower classes. Another possibility is the focus on this woman’s individuality, since this was the social atmosphere at the time, as mentioned above.
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