Large, hand tinted studio portrait.

[hottoddy]

I picked this up on a whim while I was at a local flea market (you can see the other various WWI era American goodies that I scavenged). It is 11.75x19.75 inches and appears to be colorized by hand.

I know that this is an Austrian, but I don't know what his collar insignia is. The Ribbon colors seem to be embellishments on the part of the artist/photographer who tinted the image and, as a result, there is not much detail to identify the medal.

Also, are these types of images developed/printed with the color added or is it a process that is applied by hand directly to a print of a photograph?

Probably least important but still on my mind; are these uncommon? Obviously the frame is missing, but is it still desirable in this condition? I paid what I consider to be fair for a warped old photograph, but I honestly don't know what something like this is worth.

[Brian L.]

His collars are Machinegunner specialist badges.

The medal looks like the large silver bravery medal. But, it is hard to tell for sure.

These types of photos are usually handcolored. Studio photographers were trained in hand-tinting photos using specially made dyes. I learned how to do it back in the pre-digital days as an art student, when I studied photography. Color photo printing using a process called autochrome was somewhat expensive at that time. So, it's unlikely that the average soldier would pay for something like that.

[pzrwest]

I have an old framed picture of me on a pony, taken by a traveling photographer. He hand colored the lips and flesh tone of the face and other minor details. I was about 3 or 4 when this was done so would have been done in 1952 or 53. So they were still doing this process that late

[hottoddy]

Thanks for the ID!

My late grandfather was a wildlife artist and he used to do the same thing through the 40s and 50s. That being said, it was a very simple tint with a handful of light, flat colors similar to how one would fill in a coloring book.

I was curious about the process of this image because it almost looks airbrushed with lots of value and opaque embellishments that completely cover up the photograph image in certain areas. Quite the contrast to the usual tinted pictures I see.

Would it be worth it to find a nice frame for this guy? I have no idea what something like this is worth, but I feel bad not getting it properly framed.

[Brian L.]

I don't think it's airbrushed. You can easily get this effect with good quality sable brushes.

I think it's worth framing. Although not terribly valuable, it's quite evocative of the period.