William Henry Fox Talbot (English, 1800-1877)
Talbot converses with an Acolyte in the North Courtyard of Lacock Abbey, 1841-1844
Calotype negative, waxed
15.9 x 20.0 cm

The time is early afternoon. Although the ivy provides little hint of the season, the open windows speak of the sun's warmth. Lady Elisabeth Feilding's bank of windows is immediately above the two gentlemen. Above her room, in the servants' quarters, there seem to be two figures in the window. The main characters in the photograph, Talbot himself and perhaps either Calvert Jones or Nicolaas Henneman, are in a forced casual pose, realistic enough but braced for the several seconds the camera operator required for the calotype negative. In a posing conceit, a delicate wooden chair has been brought out from the Abbey to provide support.

The north courtyard was the central support hub of Lacock Abbey, housing the brewery, storage, estate offices, and stable. The kitchen was a critical source of supplies for Talbot's photography, and its basement entrance is just to the right of the image. A seated Talbot wears the typical gentleman's daytime dress with the fashionable straight-lined top hat defining his role as master of the estate. Talbot is discussing the condition of the crops or perhaps arrangements for a journey with a coatless man portrayed by Jones or Henneman. The belted britches and stockings are practical work wear and he appears to be wearing wooden clogs, often the mark of an agricultural worker. His gray top hat is appropriate for daytime use, but its "mad hatter" size and slightly concave sides speak of an earlier era, perhaps a hand-me-down Wellington from the 1820s.
The excellent density of the negative ensures full details in the shadows. It was waxed to both increase transparency and to provide some protection from airborne contaminants. The corners are neatly clipped to prevent damage in handling while printing but, in spite of this precaution, one was accidentally torn away. This is an early print, fortunately made before that corner was damaged.

William Henry Fox Talbot (English, 1800-1877)
Talbot converses with an Acolyte in the North Courtyard of Lacock Abbey, 1841-1844
Salt print from a calotype negative
15.9 x 20.0 cm on

Hiroshi Sugimoto (Japanese, b. 1948)
"An Oriel Window at Lacock Abbey, probably Summer 1835", 2010
Toned gelatin silver print
93.7 x 74.9 cm, framed
Edition 1/10
Signed on label on frame verso

"Printing the precious negatives that Talbot bequeathed, I head back to the origins of photography, to the origins of painting, perhaps to the origins of consciousness, to the very earliest milestone of my being."

Hiroshi Sugimoto

Since the 1970s, Hiroshi Sugimoto has used photography to investigate how visual representation interrogates history.  Sugimoto photographed one of Talbot's earliest photogenic drawing negatives, inverted the image during the production process, and greatly enlarged it, obtaining a positive print of a negative the inventor had never printed. He then toned the image in colors corresponding to the colors of Talbot's own prints. This is part of an inspired series in which Sugimoto created work from negatives Talbot had never printed. 

Talbot's original negative is part of the Rubel Collection, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.

William Henry Fox Talbot (English, 1800-1877)
Stable roofline, northeast courtyard, Lacock Abbey, likely September 1840
Salt print from a photogenic drawing or calotype negative
8.0 x 8.2 cm on 9.3 x 11.6 cm paper
Schaaf 4293

Stable roofline is a fine early salt print made at the transitional moment when Talbot first observed the latent image and discovered the calotype negative. Set in Lacock’s northeast courtyard, this spectral image taken from a facing second floor window shows Talbot’s innate compositional talent emphasizing the geometric proportions of his home. The ragged edges of the negative indicate Talbot's haste in trimming by hand before printing it. 

This apparently unique print has never before been exhibited.

William Henry Fox Talbot (English, 1800-1877)
The milliner's window, circa 1844
Salt print from a calotype negative
14.4 x 19.6 cm on 18.3 x 22.9 cm paper
Schaaf 1924

In addition to her active support and encouragement of her son's work, Lady Elisabeth Feilding was an enthusiastic participant in the photographic activities at Lacock Abbey. Lady Elisabeth herself provided the title for this photograph and it was her own collection of bonnets which was laid out on portable shelves set up in the courtyard of the Abbey. The title of the photograph has misled some historians into thinking it was taken by Henneman at Reading with its plate glass shop windows.

William Henry Fox Talbot (English, 1800-1877)
Bust of Patroclus, 1842
Salt print from a calotype negative
13.0 x 12.8 cm on 23.0 x 18.8 cm paper
Dated "9 August 1842" in the negative. Inscribed "LA794" in ink on verso.
Schaaf 190

Patroclus, the defender of Achilles, was Talbot's first and favorite portrait sitter. The plaster cast he had at Lacock Abbey was a copy of the marble in the British Museum. Talbot's chemistry required lengthy exposures and a stationary object, such as this bust, was ideal as a subject. The brush strokes around the border of this exceptional print indicate that Talbot coated the sheet of paper by hand.

Printed from the same negative as Plate V in The Pencil of Nature

Mike Robinson (Canadian, b. 1961)
"Gothick Gateway", Lacock Abbey, 2017
Half plate daguerreotype
Framed in reverse paint passe-partout
15.8 x 19.7 cm
Signed, titled, and dated in ink on studio label, frame verso

Robinson boldly brings his mastery of Daguerre's process to the home of the British inventor of photography on paper.

William Henry Fox Talbot (English, 1800-1877)
Sharington's Tower, Lacock Abbey, 6 April 1842
Salt print from a calotype negative
16.8 x 17.8 cm on 18.8 x 22.5 cm paper
Dated by Talbot in the negative
Schaaf 2238

In the period following Talbot's discovery of the calotype negative process, he continued training his camera on the Abbey itself and its grounds. This image shows Talbot's ability to render the tones and textures of masonry, glass and dark patches of ivy growing on the 16th-century octagonal tower built by the Abbey's first lay owner and Talbot's ancestor, Sir William Sharington. Sharington's Tower housed the Magna Carta, now in the British Museum.

The distinctive lavender tones of this salt-fixed print are particularly robust. The only other known print is contained within an album in the Talbot Collection of the National Science and Media Museum in Bradford.