6.7 Conclusion
Kleyn’s years in Rome show how deeply photography had entered the city’s artistic life by the middle of the nineteenth century. He arrived as a history painter, trained in the academic tradition, but soon began to explore the camera as part of his work. His lists of “places for photography,” the early negatives made in Roman gardens, and his later catalogue for Princess Marianne all point to the same pattern: photography became an additional tool, used alongside drawing and painting [19].
This perspective also shifts how we think about the history of photography in Rome. The leading figures of the so-called Roman School are rightly remembered for their innovations, yet their work was sustained by a wider circle of artists who took up the medium in more modest ways. Kleyn belonged to this group. He was not an inventor, but he tested the camera in his own practice, used it to record his commissions, and eventually applied it in a museum setting.
Equally important are the networks that made this possible. Kleyn’s friendships in Rome, his connections with restorers and fellow artists, and above all his bond with Princess Marianne gave him the means to turn private trials into more systematic projects. What began as experiments in gardens developed into a catalogue of a collection, reflecting the broader shift of photography from curiosity to everyday practice in the arts.
Kleyn’s oeuvre may be small, but it captures something larger. His career reveals how Rome functioned as a meeting place of tradition and innovation, and how photography found its place within that exchange. What Kleyn’s case shows, above all, is how the city’s international networks allowed new technologies like photography to be woven into established traditions, turning Rome into a laboratory of artistic exchange.
19
Laurens Lodewijk Kleyn (attributed to),
Photographic reproduction of a painting of the Virgin Mary and the Christ Child, c. 1865-1900,
glass negative,
Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum, inv. no. RP-D-00-1131-180