Louis Jacques Mandé DAGUERRE (French, 1787-1851)
Moorish arch, circa 1827
Dessin-fumée
7.9 x 6.2 cm on 15.0 x 13.0 cm paper
Signed in pencil

In 1827, the Parisian artist Louis Jacques Mandé Daguerre conceived of the dessin-fumée, a process combining the art of drawing using candle smoke, with a transfer process that allowed him to obtain a range of close variants from the same image. Blurring these boundaries, Daguerre carefully calibrated the effects of light and chiaroscuro to resemble miniature stage sets, as in Moorish arch. Aware of Joseph Nicephore Niépce’s experiments with light-sensitive materials, Daguerre traded one of his dessin-fumées for one of Niépce’s engraved plates. Daguerre’s and Niépce’s eventual collaboration resulted in the daguerreotype process, announced in 1839.

William Henry Fox TALBOT (English, 1800-1877)
Leaf study, probably 1841
Photogenic drawing negative
22.9 x 18.6 cm
Schaaf 4043

When Talbot began experimenting with photography in 1834, he quickly determined that he could not force enough light through a camera lens to expose his early sensitized papers.  He turned to cameraless photogenic drawing negatives, photograms, where opaque or translucent objects are placed directly on the sensitive paper and exposed to the sun. As a keen botanist, plants were natural ‘negatives’ for him to use, and the results were similar in outline and scale to the finely drawn plates that he admired in his botanical books. This plant specimen is from the Apiaceae (or Umbelliferae) family, a large family comprising mostly aromatic flowering plants, including celery, carrot, parsley, caraway, dill and fennel.

This fiery photogenic drawing is a robust and memorable survivor from the dawn of photography.

Gustave LE GRAY (French, 1820-1884)
La Joconde, d'après un dessin d'Aimé Millet, 1854-1855
Coated salt or albumen print
28.7 x 19.2 cm, mounted on 47.0 x 35.7 cm paper, mounted flush on board. Original passe-partout, rounded and bevelled corners gilt.
Photographer's red signature stamp. Numbered "29.40" in ink, and remnant of framer's label "Exposition Publique / Alphonse Giroux & Cie /  43, Boult des Capucines, Paris. / Peinture Papeterie Encadremt / Objets d'Art, de goût et de fantaisie / Vente et Location de Tablux " on framer's original blue backing.

The sculptor Aimé Millet's 1848 drawing of La Joconde was commissioned by the French Government in order to disseminate pictures of this great treasure around France. This drawing, now lost, was made specifically for Le Gray to photograph, as the sfumato and varnish on the original painting would have rendered it less suitable for photographic reproduction. The photographic print would have been sold by Le Gray from his Blvd des Capucines address, as confirmed by the framer's label. The unusual survival of the original passe-partout is evidence of his formal presentation. The quality of this print attests to the virtuosity and care that Le Gray brought to his photographs.

Eugène DELACROIX (French, 1798-1863)
"Tigre en arrêt", 1854
Cliché-verre (first state) salt print
15.7 x 19.2 cm tipped onto 31.1 x 31.0 cm paper
Titled with "1st essai mars 1854 phot. par Cuvelier" in pencil on mount

Known as the master of French Romanticism for his energetic paintings, Eugène Delacroix worked against the staid, disciplined Neoclassical style and embraced a more modern aesthetic in his works. A consummate draftsman, he spent hours observing, studying, and drawing big cats at the Jardin des Plantes, and stuffed, posed specimens in the zoology galleries of the Muséum national d’Histoire naturelle in Paris.  

In works in various media, Delacroix’s lions and tigers are resting or playful, but more often alert and predatory—nature as an actively destructive force, remote from man and indifferent to questions of value.

"Dear Sir,
I am doubly indebted to you, for introducing me to the photographic etching process and for bringing about my acquaintance with M. Cuvelier. The kindness with which he supervised my very imperfect attempt made me very happy..."
Eugène Delacroix to the painter Constant Dutilleux (1807-1865), 7 March 1854

Sir John Frederick William HERSCHEL (English, 1792-1872)
"No 351 Turin with the chain of the Alps. From the roof of the Observatory”, 1824
Camera lucida drawing, pencil on paper
20.2 x 31.0 cm on 25.2 x 38.6 cm paper
Numbered, signed, dated and titled “No 351 / JFW Herchel del. Cam. Luc. / 1824 / Turin with the chain of the Alps. From the roof of the Observatory.” in ink in border, and “Coord of / Roche Moulon x = 7.065, y = 3.65 / Dome des Jesuites x = 7.4, y = 2.65 / Clocher des Jesuites x = 7.81, y = 2.95 / Turin from the Observatory” in pencil. Inscribed “Turin from Observatory” in pencil on verso

Herschel, now travelling with just a servant on his second Grand Tour, wrote to his friend Charles Babbage that "the view of the Alps from the observatory Roof at Turin... is the finest thing conceivable we missed this when we were there together... this is the most delicious spot on earth as you would say if you saw it in such weather & were enjoying there the luxury of repose, good feeding, & pleasant society after crossing Mt. Cenis in the snow and being at once scorched & frozen & buried alive." To his mother, he enthused that "the glorious spectacle of the Alps which surround the town like a bulwark of ice at the distance of fifty to a hundred miles... is the finest sight in the world;" he promised that "you shall see a drawing of it I took from the top of the Observatory yesterday."

Rev. Calvert Richard JONES (Welsh, 1802-1877)
Soldiers in formation, Naples, 1847
Hand-colored salt print from a calotype negative, spring 1846
15.3 x 19.9 cm, mounted flush on card
Schaaf 4465

The Reverend Calvert Jones learned to make photographs from his friend William Henry Fox Talbot and they occasionally collaborated.  Jones brought his experience as a skilled draftsman and marine painter to Talbot’s negative/positive calotype process.  

His hand colored salt print, Soldiers in formation, Naples expertly fuses his photographic skills and artistic talent with his training as a watercolorist.  In 1847 Jones had the honor of showing some of his hand-colored salt prints to the Queen, who much admired them and kept one for the Royal Collection.

Rev. Calvert Richard Jones (Welsh, 1802-1877)
"Spithead," Studies of Rigging, 20 August 1853
Pencil drawing heightened with white
37.5 x 54.5 cm mounted on 52.0 x 67.2 cm paper
Signed "Calvert R. Jones", titled "Spithead" and dated, in pencil

This group of freehand sketches of ships' riggings on an oversize sheet of drawing paper displays a remarkable spontaneity. Signed, titled, and dated, this was a finished work Jones intended for display. Spithead, a strait of the English Channel, forms an extensive, deep, and sheltered channel between the northeastern shore of the Isle of Wight and the mainland of England.

William Henry Fox TALBOT (English, 1800-1877)
Merton College from the fields, Oxford, circa 1843
Hand colored (possibly by André Mansion) salt print, from a calotype negative
13.6 x 20.2 cm
Schaaf 1338

Talbot found “the number of picturesque points of view” in Oxford to be “almost inexhaustible.”  Although he was a Cambridge man, Oxford was one of Talbot’s favorite locations; it is also closer than Cambridge to Talbot’s ancestral home, Lacock Abbey. This is a rare example of a Talbot photograph which was hand-colored, showing the full border. The coloring was possibly by Andre Mansion, a miniature painter who first established his reputation in Brussels, before becoming a noted miniaturist on ivory in Paris.  By 1845 Mansion had become the chief daguerreotype colorist in London.

Attributed to Nevil STORY-MASKELYNE (English, 1823-1911)
Leaves of lace, circa 1840
Photogenic drawing negative
5.0 x 17.0 cm, corners trimmed
Schaaf 5627

Having fallen out of favor and fashion with the invention of machine-made net in the early nineteenth century, handmade lacework experienced a resurgence of popularity when Queen Victoria ordered a Honitan lace bridal dress for her marriage to Prince Albert in 1840. The cheaper and less intricate designs that characterized machine work were contrasted with the delicate details of handmade lace which relied upon imagery from the botanical world for its design motifs. Lace became an essential element of the mid-Victorian wardrobe with the differentiation between machine-made and hand-made an important clue to the social and economic status of its wearer. The particular lace captured by Story-Maskelyne in this photogenic drawing negative is undoubtedly of the handmade variety. The whimsical and almost dancer-like appearance of this row of exquisitely joined lace leaves is a beautiful amalgamation of the two central themes of early photograms: leaves and lace.

Gilles-Louis Chrétien (French, 1754-1811)
Self portrait, 1792
Physiognotrace, after a drawing by Jean Fouguet
5.3 cm tondo on 7.7 x 6.7 cm plate on 12.1 x 8.7 cm paper, after 1811
Printed "G. L. Chrétien musicien du Roy, invteur de Physionotrace et graveur en 1787 / Dess. p. Fouquet gr. pl. Chrétien en 1792. a Paris". Inscribed "L. Chrétien / inventeur de physionotrace / 1792 / 19 4" in pencil. Inscribed "retirage relativement / inalt / d'apres la planche originale /rare cependant" with numerical notations, in pencil, on verso

Gilles-Louis Chrétien invented the physiognotrace in 1787. It is a mechanical technique using an eyepiece connected to a pantograph to transfer silhouette drawings to engraving plates thus enabling the production of multiple copies in a short time. As such, these machine images satisfied the growing desire for inexpensive portraits and were precursors of the photographic negative. This was engraved by Chrétien after a drawing by Jean Fouquet.

William Henry Fox Talbot (English, 1800-1877)
Copy of a large Italian print, reduced in the camera, circa 1844
Salt print from a calotype negative
17.8 x 15.4 cm on 23.0 x 18.8 cm paper
Watermark "J Whatman Turkey Mill 1840". "LA2043" in ink on verso.

Frederick H. Evans (English, 1853-1943)
Twin elliptical pendulum curve, 1899-1910
Harmonograph drawing in green ink
9.2 x 9.0 cm mounted on 16.2 x 12.4 cm brown paper 
"FHE" blindstamp on mount