The Cleveland Museum of Art
Collection Online as of December 14, 2025
Jabba at Penland
1993
Location: Not on view
Did You Know?
In the 1970s, Bea Nettles helped revive almost extinct photographic techniques such as gum bichromate and hand-coloring, processes used together in Jabba at Penland.Description
Gum bichromate gave early photographers the ability to add color to their images. Nettles uses it, along with hand coloring (note the red eyes), to impart a mythical, historical tone to this ”portrait” of a toy depicting the modern sci-fi villain Jabba the Hutt from the Star Wars franchise. He presides not over a galaxy but over a rocky hill overlooking a parking area at the Penland School of Craft in North Carolina, where Nettles has taught.- Accurate identification of process ensures this artwork is housed appropriately and provides an accurate catalogue record for future exhibition and research.
At first glance, this gum bichromate photograph could be mistaken for a painting due to its otherworldly subject. Invented in the 19th century, the gum bichromate process uses the light sensitivity of dichromates instead of silver particles to create the image and allows for having colored images ranging from a single hue to a full-color image. The velvety surface texture, muted color palette, and hazy details add to this work’s ethereal quality.
Specific visual clues such as the high-quality sturdy paper substrate, registration lines, pin holes, and creases help identify the process. The robust fine art paper was chosen for its ability to withstand several rinses in water, which are required for this process. The faint pencil outline allowed the artist to perfectly register separate low-density negatives for exposure. Full-color images could have three to four individual negatives in red, green, and blue (RGB) or cyan, magenta, yellow, and black (CMYK) allowing for a wide range of color combinations. The pin holes and indentions at the top corners are not damage but rather a result of the hanging and drying process.
The distinct brush work seen in this gum bichromate photograph comes from the application of a dichromate salt coating to the surface of the paper. This light-sensitive coating would be applied in combination with or followed by a layer of colored pigment mixed with gum arabic. This was one way to add color to an image. Hand coloring is another technique used to enhance photographs and can be seen in the Jabba character. The difference in surface topography and texture in raking light indicates the addition of white and yellow in the body, black outline on the mouth, and red and black in the eyes. Traditionally, hand coloring would have been one of the last steps. - 1993-2023Bea Nettles (the artist) [1946-], Urbana, IL, given to The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OHMarch 6, 2023-The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
- {{cite web|title=Jabba at Penland|url=false|author=Bea Nettles|year=1993|access-date=14 December 2025|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}
Source URL:
https://www.clevelandart.org/art/2023.24