  Albanese varieties provide a standard tool in algebraic geometry for
converting questions about varieties in general, to questions about Abelian
varieties. A result of Serre provides the existence of an Albanese variety for
any geometrically connected and geometrically reduced scheme of finite type
over a field, and a result of Grothendieck--Conrad establishes that Albanese
varieties are stable under base change of field provided the scheme is, in
addition, proper. A result of Raynaud shows that base change can fail for
Albanese varieties without this properness hypothesis. In this paper we show
that Albanese varieties of geometrically connected and geometrically reduced
schemes of finite type over a field are stable under separable field
extensions. We also show that the failure of base change in general is
explained by the L/K-image for purely inseparable extensions L/K.
