id: 151838
accession number: 1984.164
share license status: CC0
url: https://clevelandart.org/art/1984.164
updated: 2023-12-07 17:51:00.867000
Tintern Abbey, c. 1856. Roger Fenton (British, 1819–1869). Salted paper print from wet collodion negative; image: 18.8 x 22.7 cm (7 3/8 x 8 15/16 in.); matted: 35.6 x 45.7 cm (14 x 18 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, John L. Severance Fund 1984.164
title: Tintern Abbey
title in original language:
series:
series in original language:
creation date: c. 1856
creation date earliest: 1851
creation date latest: 1861
current location:
creditline: John L. Severance Fund
copyright:
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culture: England, 19th century
technique: salted paper print from wet collodion negative
department: Photography
collection: PH - British 19th Century
type: Photograph
find spot:
catalogue raisonne:
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CREATORS
* Roger Fenton (British, 1819–1869) - artist
Roger Fenton British, 1819-1869
Despite the relative brevity of his career, Roger Fenton stands among the most important and accomplished British photographers. Born in Heywood, Lancashire, to a wealthy family, Fenton graduated from University College in London and in 1844 may have studied painting in the Paris studio of Paul Delaroche, along with several other important future photographers. After returning to England, he spent four years earning a degree as a solicitor, continued to paint, and developed an interest in photography before joining a London law firm in 1851.
Fenton's paintings were shown annually in London at the Royal Academy from 1849–51. After helping to found the Calotype Club (1847), in 1852 he published an article that advocated establishment of a British photographic organization modeled after the Société héliographique in France. His argument, combined with the lifting of the use restrictions on William Henry Fox Talbot's patent for the calotype, led to formation of the London Photographic Society; Fenton served as its first honorary secretary. In December 1852, an early exhibition of the new society included 39 of his views. Soon afterward, he accompanied his friend Charles Vignoles to Russia to photograph the construction of a bridge at Kiev. Traveling to the Crimea in 1855, Fenton was the first photographer to make a sustained sequence of war views. He also accepted commissions to document the collections of the British Museum and to photograph the royal family at Buckingham and Windsor castles.
Among Fenton's best work are his photographs of landscapes and architecture. His still lifes are exceptional. His views -- whether of great expanses of garden and lawn, of Balaklava, or of fishermen at a local stream -- have an artistic consistency, grandeur of vision, and command of technique comparable only to the work of Édouard Baldus in France and Carleton E. Watkins in America. In 1862, judging the quality of photography to have declined, Fenton sold all his equipment at auction and returned to the law. His negatives were bought by Francis Frith, whose publishing concern continued to print them in various formats for the next hundred years. T.W.F.
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measurements: Image: 18.8 x 22.7 cm (7 3/8 x 8 15/16 in.); Matted: 35.6 x 45.7 cm (14 x 18 in.)
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inscription: Written in pencil on verso: "351"
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CURRENT EXHIBITIONS
title: Year in Review for 1984
opening date: 1985-04-03T05:00:00
Year in Review for 1984. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (April 3-May 5, 1985).
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LEGACY EXHIBITIONS
* CMA, April 3 - May 5, 1985: "Year in Review 1984," CMA Bulletin, 72 (April 1985), p. 201, no. 42.
CMA, June 29 - August 26, 1990: "The World Seen Anew: English and French Photographs of the 1850's," Gallery D, no exhibition catalogue.
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PROVENANCE
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RELATED WORKS
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CITATIONS
Cleveland Museum of Art, Tom E Hinson. Catalogue of Photography. Cleveland, OH: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1996.
page number: Reproduced: P. 156
url:
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IMAGES
web: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1984.164/1984.164_web.jpg
print: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1984.164/1984.164_print.jpg
full: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1984.164/1984.164_full.tif