Sydney Richard Percy (English, 1821-1886)

Harvesting, circa 1855

Albumen print from a collodion negative

16.4 x 13.6 cm

Sydney Richard Percy Williams was the fifth son of the painter Edward Williams. Following his older brothers' example he learned to paint from his father and was launched as a professional artist by the 1840s. In 1842 Sydney had his debut at the Royal Academy. By the time he was twenty, Percy had dropped "Williams" from his name in order to avoid confusion with the rest of the Williams family painters. During the 1850s he took up photography using his images as source material for his paintings. Percy was unapologetic for his use of the medium, a highly unusual stance during a period when most artists went to great length to hide the fact that they used photographs as a method of organizing their canvases.

Edmond Lebel (French, 1834-1908)

Edmond Albert Lebel, son of the artist, 1872

Albumen print from a collodion negative

19.6 x 18.6 cm

One traditional function of the figure study was to capture a specific pose from a particular vantage point so as to incorporate it later into a composition. A textbook example is Edmond Lebel's photograph of his son, somewhat flamboyantly elongated on a huge crate. The study served as the model for an Italian street urchin lounging atop a stone wall in a rather awkward genre scene that Lebel painted in 1872. - Peter Galassi, In the Studio: Photographs, New York: Gagosian Gallery, 2015, p. 26

The only other known example is a trimmed print from the same negative in the collection of the Musée d'Orsay.

Bertha Wehnert-Beckmann (German, 1815-1901)

Johannes Brahms, Leipzig, 1853

Salt print from collodion negative

22.3 x 17.5 cm

Bertha Wehnert-Beckmann was introduced to photography by her husband, the Leipzig daguerreotypist Eduard Wehnert who died in 1847. Bertha then emigrated in 1849 to New York City with her brother where she opened two studios. It was about this time she began making photographs on paper in addition to daguerreotypes. Upon receiving the American Institute in New York's award for services to portrait photography, Wehnert-Beckmann returned to Germany in 1851 after making over her NY studios to her brother. In Leipzig, she photographed those prominent in the arts, including composer Johannes Brahms and pianist/composer Clara Schumann. Her work was represented at the first major photographic exhibition in Germany, the General German Industrial Exhibition held in Munich in 1854. Bertha's innovative portraits, her use of modern advertising methods and her sound business sense won her great acclaim.

John Beasley Greene (American, born in France, 1832-1856)

Venus de Milo on rooftop in Paris, 1852-1853

Waxed paper negative

31.2 x 24.3 cm

Greene's rooftop images of vegetables and the plaster cast of the Venus de Milo were made during his formative period as a student of Gustave Le Gray in Paris. Greene, perhaps in collaboration with Le Gray, carried his statuette of Venus to the roof in order to sharpen his skills in lighting and composition.

Leonida Caldesi and Mattia Montecchi (Italian, 1822-1891 & 1816-1871)

The Serenade (Mario and Grisi in "Il Trovatore"), 1857

Albumen print from a collodion negative

41.8 x 34.9 cm

Portrayed are Mario De Candia, regarded as the foremost tenor of the 19th century, and his wife Giulia Grisi, the eminent soprano, striking their Trovatore pose. They premiered, to great acclaim, in the lead roles of Manrico and Leonora when Verdi's Il Trovatore was first performed in Britain in 1855. Photographers Caldesi and Montecchi worked together in London and specialized in art reproductions and society portraiture. This portrait was made outside their studio at a house later used by Camille Silvy. In September 1856, Mario leased Park House, a mansion in the Fulham section of London. Giulia Grisi's friend, Italian composer Luigi Arditi, cherished "the memory of countless happy days spent at the lovely house at Fulham, where Mario indulged in a mania for photography, and Caldesi was invariably present with his camera." A close variant of "The Serenade" is illustrated in Arditi's 1896 memoir, My Reminiscences. The intimacy between photographers and subjects is merged in this remarkable large-format operatic image.

William Henry Fox Talbot (English, 1800-1877)

Nicolaas Henneman reading on a couch, 2 October 1841

Salt print from a calotype negative

14.9 x 17.7 cm on 18.8 x 22.7 cm paper

In this image, a candle stand illuminates the book Henneman is so intently reading. The draping of the backdrop on the left reveals the outdoor setting - the natural studio - set up at Lacock. The strong diagonals of the folds in the backdrop echo the diagonal of Henneman's arm, an active and believable pose, but one likely settled on to enable him to hold still for the exposure. 

The negative is in the National Science and Media Museum, Bradford (1937-1426).

Adam Fuss (American, born in England, b. 1961)

"from the series My Ghost," 1997

Unique gelatin silver print photogram

60.3 x 50.8 cm

About "My Ghost" Adam Fuss writes "My Ghost is a series of photographs begun in 1994. They represent a personal expression of loss and an attempt to express in visual terms an emotional presence of a human that is now absent. The Daguerreotype as a medium seems to perfectly fit this intention being both a reflection of the observer and an image fixed at some past time, thus creating a sense of memory and presence." This is the first baptismal dress of several in this series.

Joseph Cundall and Robert Howlett (English, 1818-1895 & 1830-1858)

"Crimean Braves" Nunn, Potter and Deal, Coldstream Guards, Aldershot Garrison,

July 1856

Photogalvanograph proof on laid India paper, 24.6 x 19.9 cm

During the Crimean War, the mismanagement and suffering of the common troops was terrible beyond belief. In spite of the good works of Florence Nightingale and the emergence of improvements, Britain knew it had failed its soldiers, and it was only upon their return in 1856 that the "Crimean Heroes" and "Crimean Braves" began to gain the recognition they deserved. Queen Victoria commissioned Cundall & Howlett to make candid portraits of the common soldier. Howlett chose to work in the field, setting up temporary studios at the dockyards and hospitals. Cundall worked from their studio in central London. The lighting is clear, the focus sharp and Cundall's vision is so direct as to avoid any sentimentality. This image was one of four exhibited in the 1857 Photographic Society of London's annual exhibition, labeled as "taken by command of Her Majesty." Incorrectly credited to Roger Fenton in the 1857 exhibition, Cundall's image is rendered in an experimental process, a "Proof" print using the photogalvanograph, devised by Paul Pretsch (1808-1873), Austrian photographer and inventor and former Manager of the Imperial Printing Establishment in Vienna. Starting in late 1856, they (Cundall and Roger Fenton, an investor and partner) published at their The Patent Photo-Galvanographic Company in the Holloway Road, Islington, London, a serial portfolio, Photographic Art Treasures, or Nature and Art Illustrated by Art and Nature, illustrated with photogalvanographs derived from several photographer's works. After a short production run the company folded.

Rev. Calvert Richard Jones (Welsh, 1802-1877)

Chiaroscuro portrait, possibly Anne Harriet Jones, early 1850s

Salt print from a glass (?) negative

10.0 x 8.1 cm

Anne was Jones' first wife and she took an active interest in the progress of photographic art.