id:			153715
accession number:	1987.24
share license status:	CC0
url:			https://clevelandart.org/art/1987.24
updated:		2024-03-26 02:00:01.224000

The Woodcutters, 1845. William Henry Fox Talbot (British, 1800–1877). Salted paper print from calotype negative; image: 15.1 x 21 cm (5 15/16 x 8 1/4 in.); matted: 35.6 x 45.7 cm (14 x 18 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Andrew R. and Martha Holden Jennings Fund 1987.24

title:				The Woodcutters
title in original language:	
series:				
series in original language:	
creation date:			1845
creation date earliest:		1845
creation date latest:		1845
current location:		
creditline:			Andrew R. and Martha Holden Jennings Fund
copyright:			

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culture:	England, 19th century
technique:	salted paper print from calotype negative
department:	Photography
collection:	PH - British 19th Century
type:		Photograph
find spot:	
catalogue raisonne: 

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CREATORS

* William Henry Fox Talbot (British, 1800–1877)  - artist
William Henry Fox Talbot British, 1800-1877

Born in Melbury, Dorset, Fox Talbot was a gentleman of the 19th century who, like many others of his class, pursued leisure activities in the arts and sciences. He experimented with means for capturing permanently the elusive images formed on paper by the camera obscura, an instrument used as a drawing aid. After several years of varying results, Talbot successfully devised a process that chemically recorded the image made by light on a piece of paper. On February 21, 1839, one month after the announcement of Louis-Jacques-Mandé Daguerre's photographic process, Talbot presented his experiments to the Royal Society in London.
	Talbot's process differed greatly from that of Daguerre. Unlike the daguerreotype's sharply detailed image, the calotype, or Talbotype, was softly blurred; yet because the positive image was made from a negative, it had the advantage of multiple reproduction. This formed the basis of conventional photography.
	A graduate of Trinity College, Cambridge, Talbot was a man of scholarly and scientific bent whose interests included optics and botany. Before his work in photography, he also had published on mathematics and linguistics. He later played an important role in the deciphering of Assyrian and other cuneiform inscriptions of interest to biblical scholars.
	Talbot was made a Fellow of the Royal Society at age 32. He is credited with the first photographic negative, which still exists, a view of a set of windows at his home, Lacock Abbey. He invented a form of engraving that was a forerunner of photogravure, as well as other innovations in the quickly growing art form for which he was largely responsible. Talbot's The Pencil of Nature (1844-46) and Sun Pictures in Scotland (1845) are two of the earliest photographically illustrated books. T.W.F.
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measurements: Image: 15.1 x 21 cm (5 15/16 x 8 1/4 in.); Matted: 35.6 x 45.7 cm (14 x 18 in.)
state of the work:	
edition of the work: 	

support materials:


inscriptions:

	inscription:	Written in black ink on verso: "LA 509 [crossed out] 559"
	translation:	
	remark:		

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CURRENT EXHIBITIONS

	title:		The Year in Review for 1987
	opening date:   1988-02-24T05:00:00
	<i>The Year in Review for 1987</i>. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (February 24-April 17, 1988).

	title:		Legacy of Light: Seven Masters in Depth
	opening date:   1996-11-20T05:00:00
	<i>Legacy of Light: Seven Masters in Depth</i>. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (November 20-February 2, 1996).

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LEGACY EXHIBITIONS

* {'description': 'CMA, February 24 - April 17, 1988: "Year in Review 1987," CMA Bulletin, 75 (February 1988), p. 67, no. 92.', 'opening_date': '1988-02-24T00:00:00'}

* {'description': 'CMA, November 20,1996 - February 2, 1997: "Legacy of Light: Seven Masters in Depth."', 'opening_date': '1997-02-02T00:00:00'}

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PROVENANCE

	Lacock Abbey
	date: 
	footnotes: 	
	citations: 	


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fun fact:


digital description:


wall description:

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RELATED WORKS

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CITATIONS

	Cleveland Museum of Art, Tom E Hinson. <em>Catalogue of Photography</em>. Cleveland, OH: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1996.
	page number: 	Reproduced: P. 355
	url:		

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IMAGES

web:	https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1987.24/1987.24_web.jpg
print:	https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1987.24/1987.24_print.jpg
full:	https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1987.24/1987.24_full.tif