Roger Fenton (English, 1819-1869)
"Afternoon," 1856
Salt print from a collodion negative
20.6 x 42.1 cm, top corners rounded
Fenton's clouds are the defining core of his extraordinary landscapes, in much the same way as those of Constable, who in a letter described the sky as both "the keynote" and "the chief organ of sentiment" in landscape painting, adding that "[the] landscape painter who does not make skies a very material part of his composition neglects to avail himself of one of his greatest aids. The sky is the source of light in nature and governs everything." Deeply inspired by Constable's cloud studies and Turner's explorations of atmosphere and light, Fenton's rendition of clouds and sky is an intensely felt meditation on nature which seems to hover between the visible and the imagined while manifesting a reverence for the observable world.
The preeminent British photographer of the 1850s, Fenton advocated the medium's place among the fine arts and mastered all its genres. This salt print, boldly signed in ink, is on par with both renowned Fenton cloud studies from the Rubel Collection now at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, and, like the other two, is unique.
Roger Fenton (English, 1819-1869)
Landscape with waterfall, 1850s
Salt print from a collodion negative
31.5 x 30.6 cm, top corners rounded
As a landscape photographer Fenton was without parallel among his contemporaries. His most compelling views of the English, Welsh and Scottish countryside evoke the paintings of Constable and Turner and the Romantic poetry of William Wordsworth. A critic, for the Journal of the Photograhic Society in a review of the annual exhibition in 1858 noted of Fenton's work, "No one can touch Fenton for landscape....There is such an artistic feeling about the whole of these pictures...that they cannot fail to strike the beholder as something more than mere photographs."
Roger Fenton (English, 1819-1869)
Sebastopol from Cathcart's Hill, Crimea, 1855
Salt print from a collodion negative
22.7 x 35.9 cm
In this nearly abstract composition, Fenton focuses his lens on the middle-ground to show the officers looking out over the harbor at Sebastopol. The sky was masked out in the printing.
Roger Fenton (English, 1819-1869)
Volunteer riflemen on Wimbledon Common, 7 July 1860
Albumen print from a collodion negative
16.1 x 29.7 cm, irregularly trimmed
This image was made near the end of his photographic career, part of a series documenting the inaugural meeting of the British National Rifle Association which was presided over by Queen Victoria.
Roger Fenton (English, 1819-1869)
Kadikoi, from Camp of Horse Artillery, in the Crimea, 1855
Salt print from a collodion negative
25.3 x 34.9 cm, mounted on 50.9 x 64.6 cm heavy paper
Photographer's and publisher's credit and title lithographed on mount
Made during the Crimean War, this image of the road to Balaklava running past the village of Kadikoi reflects Fenton's mastery of pictorial composition which uses the motif of the serpentine road to lead the eye into the landscape. While soldiers and camp tents are visible in the foreground, the tumult of war is minimized and overshadowed by the expansive vista Fenton's lens has captured.
Roger Fenton (English, 1819-1869)
Grace Fenton and child, 1850s
Salt print from a wet collodion negative
16.2 x 11.3 cm
No other print from this negative is known.
Roger Fenton (English, 1819-1869)
Photographic Art Treasures "Cedars Monmouthshire", Published October 1857
Photogalvanograph
21.5 x 17.6 cm on 25.4 x 22.5 cm paper mounted on 55.8 x 38.5 cm card
Printed title and credits
In early 1856 Roger Fenton began to actively seek a more economical means of reproducing and circulating his photographs to a wider audience. He became impressed by Paul Pretsch's "photo-galvanographic" process which was a photomechanical means of reproducing photographs, drawings or paintings in ink printed on a press. By the end of the year Fenton had joined Pretsch as a partner in the Patent Photo-Galvanographic Company. The company released the first part of "Photographic Art Treasures; or Nature and Art Illustrated by Art and Nature, in late October 1856. Four more parts were to follow which included contributions from not only Fenton alongside others such Robert Howlett and Lake Price. Fenton's hopes for the endeavor were quickly diminished by the growing realization that the plates themselves were not as durable as previously thought; wearing down after only a few inkings. By May 1857 the company was facing severe financial losses alongside the impending threat of legal action from William Henry Fox Talbot who believed the company had infringed his 1852 patent for photographic engraving.
The failure of Fenton's technological foray does not diminish the visual impact of this particular contribution. Fenton's mastery of perspective is on full display as he captures the physical enormity of the cedar by posing the two diminutive figures at its base.