Artist Index: Talbot, William Henry Fox

"Nelson's Column under Construction, Trafalgar Square, London, April". 1844. Salted paper print from a calotype negative. 17 x 21,2 cm (18,6 x 22,6 cm). Annotated LA 309 in ink on verso, hinge-mounted in upper edge to window mat.

William Henry Fox Talbot, a 19th-century English scientist and pioneer in the field of photography, is renowned for inventing the calotype process, a major advancement in early photography that enabled multiple prints to be made from a single negative. This photograph shows the unfinished base and part of the shaft of Nelson’s Column in Trafalgar Square, with the early 18th century church of Saint Martin-in-the-Fields in the background. Other examples of this image are in the collections of the Metropolitan Museum, the Museum of Fine Art Houston and the Getty Museum. – Faded, a few light handling marks, otherwise in good condition.

Provenance: Uta and Wilfried Wiegand Collection

Lit.: Larry J. Schaaf. The Photographic Art of William Henry Fox Talbot. Princeton 2000, see plate plate 81, p. 194 and cover, showing detail.

"A Fruit Piece"; "The Haystack". 1844/45/printed 1987. 2 salt prints on thick paper from original calotype negatives. 17,4 x 20,7 cm and 16,9 x 21,8 cm.

These two prints were made from William Henry Fox Talbot's original calotype negatives on the occasion of the exhibition and publication of the book "Die Aufgehobene Zeit". – In excellent condition.

Lit.: Hubertus von Amelunxen (ed.). Die Aufgehobene Zeit. Berlin 1989, illustrated.

"Abbotsford" from Sun Pictures in Scotland. 24 Oct., 1844. Salt print from a calotype negative printed on Whatman paper, watermark J. WhatmanTurkey Mill 1840. 15,3 x 22 cm (18,4 x 23 cm). LA 27 in ink on the verso.

This image appeared as plate 3 in Sun Pictures in Scotland. Abbotsford was the home of Sir Walter Scott. Talbot's hope for commercial exploitation of his invention lay in the widespread distribution of large editions of photographic prints, the principal advantage of negative-positive process over the daguerreotype. In early 1844, in an effort to encourage the mass production of paper photographs, Talbot supported Nicolaas Henneman, his former valet, in the creation of a photographic printing establishment in Reading, a town on the route between London and his home in Lacock. The firm's initial project was Talbot's "Pencil of Nature", the first commercially published book illustrated with photographs. – Slight edge wear and fading in edges in margins, otherwise in very good condition.

Provenance: Robert Lebeck Collection