Image of Gallery in South Kensington
Request to view at the Prints & Drawings Study Room, level F , Case X, Shelf 601, Box F

Sgraffito on the Science Schools

Photograph
ca. 1872 (photographed)
Artist/Maker
Place of origin

Photographs and photographers were present from the very beginning of the V&A's history and the Museum has an extensive collection of images from the 1850s through to the present which documents the construction and development of the V&A and the South Kensington site.

Originally collected by the National Art Library as part of a programme to record works of art, architecture and design in the interest of public education, these topographic and architectural views were valued as records and as source material for students of architecture and design. As well as being crucial records of the history of the V&A, and an important element within the National Art Library's visual encyclopaedia, these photographs are also significant artefacts in the history of the art of photography.


Object details

Categories
Object type
TitleSgraffito on the Science Schools (published title)
Materials and techniques
Albumen print
Brief description
Photograph by Isabel Agnes Cowper, Engraved plaster decoration (sgraffito) on the east side of the Science Schools, designed by F.W. Moody and executed by students of the Art Schools, albumen print, ca. 1872
Physical description
A photograph of the sgraffito covering the facade of a building with arched windows.
Dimensions
  • Height: 27.8cm
  • Width: 19.5cm
taken from Bryant, Julius, Designing the V&A: The Museum as a Work of Art (1857- 1909), (London: Lund Humphries in association with the Victoria and Albert Museum, 2017)
Style
Marks and inscriptions
  • 'IIaa / London: South Kensington Royal College of Science / Sgraffito Ornament' (ink and pencil, mount)
  • 'A.b. LONDON' (department classification label, upper right mount)
Subjects depicted
Place depicted
Association
Summary
Photographs and photographers were present from the very beginning of the V&A's history and the Museum has an extensive collection of images from the 1850s through to the present which documents the construction and development of the V&A and the South Kensington site.

Originally collected by the National Art Library as part of a programme to record works of art, architecture and design in the interest of public education, these topographic and architectural views were valued as records and as source material for students of architecture and design. As well as being crucial records of the history of the V&A, and an important element within the National Art Library's visual encyclopaedia, these photographs are also significant artefacts in the history of the art of photography.
Collection
Accession number
77778

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Record createdJuly 1, 2009
Record URL
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