Gustave Le Gray (French, 1820-1884)
Effet de soleil dans les nuages - Océan, Normandy, 1856-1857
Albumen print from a wet collodion negative
31.1 x 40.2 cm mounted on 53.0 x 68.0 cm card
Photographer's red signature stamp. Photographer's oval blindstamp "PHOTOGRAPHIE / GUSTAVE LE GRAY & Cº / PARIS", and indistinct number "6135" [?] in ink, on mount.

One in a series of poetic and meditative seascapes that brought Le Gray international acclaim for their technical and artistic achievement, this print demonstrates his mastery of the medium with a tour de force combination of clouds, empty seas and sun. The seascapes Le Gray created between 1856 and 1858 are the works for which he is most celebrated. This print has exceptionally rich tones, and overall it is in a fine state of preservation.

Louis-Antoine Froissart (French, 1815-1860)
Lyon flood, 1856
Salt print from a collodion negative
22.6 x 32.0 cm mounted on 47.5 x 60.6 cm paper
Dated "(19 Mai 1856)" in pencil, and "EB" [Ernest Binant] stationers blindstamp, on mount. Inscribed "2 / 30178 / 30" in pencil on mount verso.

Louis-Antoine Froissart (1815-1860) was the official photographer for the city of Lyon, photographing scenes and events of municipal interest. In May 1856, the city of Lyon was inundated by one of the worst floods in French history. He recorded the devastation with eloquent exactitude and poetic beauty. Froissart’s eerily serene landscape of the postdiluvian city, Lyon Flood, movingly records the disaster without depicting the human suffering left in its wake. This fine, rare salt print was presented by the photographer as a gift to the Mayor of Lyon at the time of the flood and remained in the Mayor’s family. Froissart’s photographs of the catastrophe precede the more widely known photographs by Edouard Baldus who was sent to Lyon by the French government in June of 1856.

William Henry Fox Talbot (English, 1800-1877)
Rustic bridge across a gorge, probably in Scotland, circa 1844
Salt print from a calotype negative
14.1 x 18.1 cmy

In this beautifully composed and picturesque scene Talbot has exploited the relatively long exposure time of the calotype, allowing the fast running water to partially blur into a silky ribbon, thereby animating the photograph. Just the right amount of haze sets off the foreground from the recesses of the gorge. The lightly built rustic bridge contrasts with the rugged surroundings, promising a quick if thrilling passage over the torrent. Based on Talbot's treatment of the subject, and especially on the distinctive character of the landscape, this was almost certainly taken in Scotland, in the Trossachs (Gaelic for bristled territory), most likely in the vicinity of Loch Katrine.

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."

The 12th Lord William Petre (English, 1817-1884)
Riverbank with frost, 1860s
Albumen print from a glass negative
22.2 x 28.7 cm, mounted on 32.6 x 38.3 cm paper
Blindstamp "William Petre / Essex / Thorndon Hall" on mount

Much of Lord Petre's photographic work during the 1860s evokes the world of the English country house, of which his family seat, Thorndon Hall, was very much a part. This image departs from that genre and presents a more contemplative and timeless perspective, capturing the seemingly infinite expanse of the river as it stretches forth into the wintry landscape.

André Giroux (French, 1801-1879)
Waterfall, circa 1855
Salt print from a paper negative
27.6 x 21.3 cm
Inscribed "F" in pencil on verso

Rev. Calvert Richard Jones (Welsh, 1802-1877)
Swansea Harbour, mid 1840s
Calotype negative
16.2 x 21.1 cm

Calvert Jones was a close friend of William Henry Fox Talbot. The two men met through Talbot’s cousin, Christopher Rice Mansel "Kit" Talbot. In many ways Jones embodied the hopes of the inventor of photography. After experimenting with the daguerreotype, he turned to Talbot's calotype process on paper. Jones later sent many of his negatives, including this one, to Nicholas Henneman's Reading Establishment for printing.
Jones was a marine artist, and the active harbor of his native Swansea served as the subject and inspiration for many of his paintings and photographs. In particular, he studied the ships on the mud flats of this harbor. Swansea Bay has one of the most extreme ranges of tidewaters in the world. Sailors took advantage of the mud beaching of the ships to perform maintenance, and Jones found this an ideal way to study ship forms. One can see how this extraordinary image appealed to his painterly sensibilities. 

Rev. Calvert Richard Jones (Welsh, 1802-1877)
Swansea Harbour, mid 1840s
Salt print from a calotype negative, intensified by Harold White, 1940s
16.2 x 21.1 cm

Louis-Emile Durandelle (French, 1839-1917)
Fountain, Restaurant Bonvalet, Paris, 1874
Albumen print from a collodion negative
38.3 x 28.3 cm mounted on 53.8 x 42.9 cm paper
"Delmaet & Durandelle" blindstamp, inscribed "(1874) Fontaine executée dans le restaurant Bonvalet sur le boulevard du Temple Bloche sculpteur" in ink, and unknown signature in pencil, on mount

Durandelle's best known body of work is the group of photographs of the construction of the Paris Opéra and its sculptural ornaments and decorations in the 1860s and 70s commissioned by its great architect, Charles Garnier. This view may have been a private commission to photograph the newly installed fountain sculpted by Désiré Bloch at the well known restaurant Bonvalet on the Boulevard du Temple. 

John Beasley Greene (American, born in France, 1832-1856)
Cataract of the Nile, 1853-1855
Waxed paper negative
24.3 x 31.2 cm
Inscribed "P. 23" in ink on verso

After studying privately with Gustave Le Gray in Paris and Fontainbleau, Greene made his first voyage to Egypt at the age of 21. Early in 1854, Greene traveled up the Nile to the Second Cataract. He made a number of views from the adjoining desert that contrasted with his stated mission to document archeological sites. It is these pure and minimal landscapes for which Greene is celebrated today.

John Beasley Greene (American, born in France, 1832-1856)
Landscape, Constantine, Algeria, 1855-1856
Lightly coated salt print from a paper negative
23.7 x 30.6 cm on 24.2 x 31.5 cm paper

From 1855-1856, Greene produced a series of images of Constantine, an ancient city dramatically perched on a mountaintop in Algeria. These were the last photographs he made before his death at the early age of 24. In the light of North Africa, Greene does not exactly represent places, even when he records houses, ruined aqueducts, roads, bridges or burial sites, he creates tonal maps. The lengthy exposure has smoothed out the water and blurred the details of a horse drawn cart stopped in the stream below.

Joseph vicomte Vigier (French, 1821-1894)
Chateau de Grand-Vaux, Savigny sur Orge, the family home of Vigier, circa 1855
Coated salt or albumen print from a paper negative
17.3 x 23.5 cm mounted on 20.6 x 29.2 cm album page

Joseph vicomte Vigier, the early French master, was one of Gustave Le Gray’s most successful pupils. His dramatic views in the Pyrénées in the album Voyage dans les Pyrénées 1853, were embraced in England and on the Continent. His comfortable mastery of Talbot’s calotype as well as Le Gray’s wax paper negative process gave him great flexibility and he used both of these techniques. This serene, elegant view of his family home in 1855 followed the unique achievement of his Pyrénées photographs. He continued to receive medals and honors for his contributions, but Vigier’s celebrated career as a photographer was mostly over by the late 1850s.

Hugh Owen (English, 1808-1897)
Washing place with basket
Albumen print, 1860s-1870s, from a paper negative, before 1855
17.4 x 22.2 cm mounted on 26.0 x 28.3 cm album sheet
Numbered "74" in pencil on mount

Owen's range of subject matter, both during his years as an amateur and as a professional photographer, was varied. His ability to capture the poetic in the seemingly trivial landscape of both the natural and man-made worlds is notable. His sense of perspective imbues this particular print with a grandeur that might be more commonly associated with ancient ruins. His ability to push to the limits the artistic potential of the paper negative process as evidenced in this image is perhaps one explanation for his continued fidelity to its use.

Adam Fuss (American, born in England, b. 1961)
ARK 2005, 2005
Gelatin silver print photogram
61.0 x 50.8 cm
Signed on verso

Ark was created by placing a sheet of photographic paper underneath a tray of water and allowing a single drop to fall onto the surface while simultaneously firing a flash to record the event. The resulting wave's undulations are delineated by the range of gray tones to create an iconic image. This print is unique.

David Octavius Hill & Robert Adamson (Scottish, 1802-1870 & 1821-1848)
Jeanie Wilson and Annie Linton, Newhaven, "They were twa bonnie lasses", circa 1845
Salt print from a calotype negative
19.0 x 13.6 cm mounted on 37.4 x 26.2 cm grey paper
"58" noted in pencil on mount verso

Among the earliest photographers to exploit both the artistic and documentary potential of the portrait, D. O. Hill & Robert Adamson made a survey of contemporary life in the picturesque fishing village of Newhaven, just outside Edinburgh.  In Jeanie Wilson and Annie Linton, an 1845 salt print from a calotype negative in the series, the photographers saw that the true character and beauty of the fishwives was intimately connected to their way of life and the precarious nature of their ties to the hard-working fishermen, often absent at sea. The traditional dress of the fisherwomen lends itself particularly well to the calotype medium. Hill & Adamson’s skillful deployment of light and shade and their positioning of the sitters is a fine example of early portraiture and a sought after example of their work.

Lumière Brothers Studio (French)
Still life with fish, circa 1907
Autochrome
13.9 x 17.9 cm
"Autochromes Lumière" printed label

Tung Hing (Chinese, active 1860s-1880s)
"The Pagoda Island", circa 1870
Albumen print from a collodion negative
23.0 x 28.2 cm mounted on 30.7 x 39.5 cm paper
Titled in pencil and "No. 38" on mount

Fuzhou is the capital and one of the largest cities in Fujian province, China.  Though considered the cradle of Chinese seafaring, Pagoda Island's anchorage was only frequented by larger Western vessels as China began to open up in the 1840s and became famous in 1866 with the first of the annual "tea races" to London.  The octagonal Luoxing (Falling Star) Pagoda was built of granite under the Northern Song Dynasty (1127-1299).  At 31.5 meters high its centuries-old role as a mariner's landmark is indicated by its appearance on charts of the great Chinese explorer Zheng He (1371-1435). 

Unknown Photographer
Waterfall along the Old Tibet Road, 1854
Waxed paper negative
37.4 x 29.3 cm on 37.8 x 29.7 cm paper
Inscribed "XO" in pencil. Inscribed "8" in ink on verso.

In this view in the Himalayas, the two bright bands of water represented as mysterious black shapes in the negative take on a life of their own, especially the larger one. The longer exposure times of waxed paper were actually an advantage for this particular image. When moving water is photographed with exposure times of tens of seconds, or even minutes, the surface of the water itself becomes very satiny. Additionally, the photographer was employing the upper limit of the image circle thrown by his lens.  There is a bit of light fall-off at the top corners which helps to frame the image. As is so often the case, these technical limitations were exploited, consciously or intuitively, by the photographer to strengthen the image.

Francis Edmund Currey (Irish, 1814-1896)
"Ornishade Glen Waterfall", circa 1888
Platinum print
"Onnishade Glen Waterfall" 20.5 x 15.5 cm; mounted on verso "Kilmolash Church" 15.2 x 20.3 cm.
Titled on mount

Currey was the agent of Lismore Castle in County Waterford, Ireland, owned by the Duke of Devonshire. In this position of stewardship, he had time and resources to experiment with photography, beginning with the calotype process in the 1840s. He was a member of the Photographic Society of London, and the Amateur Photographic Association. He continued photographing using a variety of processes throughout his life. Between the upper and lower waterfalls, Currey has depicted a newly built rustic bridge across the glen.
    
On the verso of the album page is another Currey platinum print of Kilmolash Church, a short distance from Lismore.

Eugène Cuvelier (French, 1837-1900)
Willows Along the Scarp River, near Arras, France, late 1850s
Salt print from a paper negative
20.0 x 26.0 cm mounted on 54.1 x 69.3 cm paper

Eugène Cuvelier grew up in the artistic milieu of Arras. Guided by his father, a skilled photographer, and friends with Corot, he studied painting with Constant Dutilleux, who took him on plein-air-painting journeys to Barbizon and Fountainebleau Forest. During this time, he transitioned to photography of the landscape and became a master, modulating light and atmosphere with admirable delicacy. In this view,  Cuvelier delights in the gentle bend in the river on a windless day precisely reflecting the pollarded trees and sky, punctuated by three distant farmhouses. By this time, professional photographers had begun using the more modern glass negatives, but Cuvelier clearly preferred the pictorial texture of salt prints from paper negative, as evidenced by this quiet little masterpiece.

The 12th Lord William Petre (English, 1817-1884)
Boating, Stonyhurst College, Lancashire, 1860s
Albumen print
23.3 x 29.1 cm mounted on 32.2 x 38.3 cm paper
Blindstamp "William Petre / Essex / Thorndon Hall" on mount

The Petres were Catholic aristocrats whose title dates from 1603 and the accession of James I to the English throne. William Bernard, the 12th Baron Petre, was himself a devout Catholic and an active patron of the Catholic church in Britain. Alongside the many photographs he took of the family seat, Thorndon Hall, Petre often widened his photographic subject matter to include landscapes and architecture outside his native Essex, including this view of the Catholic boy's school, Stonyhurst College which was also photographed by his contemporary, Roger Fenton. While the architectural grandeur of the school and its adjacent church are clearly visible in this image, Petre's composition privileges the natural majesty of the lake over human artifice, celebrating it as a source of beauty and as a place which forges companionship between men.

Captain Linnaeus Tripe (English, 1822-1902)
"No. 56. Amerapoora. View on the Lake.", September-October 1855
Albumenized salt print from a waxed paper negative
22.4 x 34.8 cm mounted on 45.6 x 58.3 cm paper
Signed "L. Tripe" in ink. Photographer's blindstamp and printed label with plate number, title and "Taken from the causeway crossing the Toung-deman lake at its Eastern extremity. A glimpse of the city is caught on the left." on mount.

This dreamlike view looks across Taungthaman Lake to the city of Amarapura in Burma (Myanmar). Tripe, an officer from the Madras Infantry, was the official photographer attached to a British diplomatic mission to Burma in 1855. Aside from official duties, the mission was instructed to gather information about the country and its people. Tripe’s architectural and topographical views are of great documentary importance as they are among the earliest surviving photographs of Burma. The photographer wrote of this view, “Taken from the causeway crossing the Toung-deman lake at its eastern extremity. A glimpse of the city is caught on the left”. Tripe’s mastery with the paper negative is at its highest level in this composition which anticipates impressionism.

Joseph vicomte Vigier (French, 1821-1894)
Dauphiné, circa 1855
Coated salt or albumen print from a paper negative
38.4 x 27.7 cm mounted on 45.6 x 35.0 cm album page

Vicomte Vigier was one of Le Gray's most successful pupils. With his large camera and the waxed paper negative technique, he led armchair travelers on an 1853 summer journey through the Pyrenees. He became a founding member of the Société Héliographique and the Société Française de Photographie. He mastered Talbot's calotype process as well as Le Gray's waxed paper negative process to give him great flexibility. This view in south eastern France is filled with myriad details fusing nature with the man-made world. The windswept trees and the two small waterfalls are particularly compelling. 

Christopher Rice Mansel TALBOT (Welsh, 1803-1890)
"Falls of Schaffhausen", 1846
Salt print from a calotype negative
15.9 x 20.9 cm on 18.4 x 22.3 cm paper
Titled in the margin of the negative by the photographer
Schaaf 3711

Christopher Rice Mansel Talbot, known as Kit, and William Henry Fox Talbot, the inventor of photography, were cousins. The two shared scientific interests, including photography. It was through Kit that Talbot met Rev. Calvert R. Jones, the Welsh artist. On a journey together to Malta and Italy in 1845, Jones and Kit Talbot made photographs, hoping to answer Henry Talbot’s call for contributions to his new publication, The Pencil of Nature.

Located near Schaffhausen, Switzerland, the Rhine Falls, the most powerful waterfall in Europe, have been a recurring source of inspiration to Goethe and other visitors. In May 1846 Kit wrote his cousin from Naples that “my route homeward… will be by Milan, Zurich, Basle &c …I did a few Talbotypes for you.” Although very few photographs by Kit Talbot are known to survive, the reverse titling in the border of this negative is characteristic of his work. This painterly, vertiginous view shows the influence of Calvert Jones.