Cloisters of Lacock Abbey, 1844
William Henry Fox Talbotexpand_more
Calotypeexpand_more
The John R. Van Derlip Fundexpand_more 74.12
Not on Viewexpand_more
One of the pioneers of photography, William Henry Fox Talbot created this image of his friend the Reverend Calvert R. Jones Jr. seated in the sacristy of Lacock Abbey, a favorite subject of his. Talbot often photographed the thirteenth-century building’s latticed windows, stately rooms, and fortresslike exterior. The process he developed, called calotype, employed a camera to create a paper negative, which was then contact printed to render a positive image. The paper fibers in the negative produced soft images that were well suited to depicting the brooding Gothic structure. Between 1844 and 1846, Talbot published his photographs in six installments, paired with text identifying their subjects and explaining how the images were made. Bound together, they became the first photographically illustrated book—The Pencil of Nature.
Details
- Title
- Cloisters of Lacock Abbey
- Artist Life
- 1800 - 1877
- Role
- Photographer
- Accession Number
- 74.12
- Curator Approved
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