Physical description

The photograph was one of a series taken for Charles Darwin’s (1809-1882) work ‘The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals’, 1872, a study into the origins of human expressions. After meeting Darwin in 1871, Rejlander became the main photographer for the project. ‘Ginx’s Baby’ was also commercially successful, and so Rejlander created versions on cartes de visite and cabinet cards. The title for the photograph was taken from a novel about an orphaned boy, by John Edward Jenkins (1838-1910). The polychrome drawing was an enlargement made after the original photogram, date unknown. Rejlander had produced a small, indistinct photograph of a crying baby, but it was too small and poor quality to reproduce, so he redrew it by hand and produced a large coloured drawing. The drawing was then rephotographed, giving it the appearance of a photographic original.

Date

1871 (photographed)

Artist/maker

Rejlander, Oscar Gustav, born 1813 - died 1875 (artist)

Materials and Techniques

Carbon print. This is an enlargement after the original photograph (date unknown).

Dimensions

Height: 181 mm Image, Width: 140 mm Image

Descriptive line

Drawing by Oscar Gustav Rejlander, Ginx's Baby, carbon print, 1871.

Bibliographic References (Citation, Note/Abstract, NAL no)

'Time Stands Still: Muybridge and the Instantaneous Photography Movement', by Philip Prodger, Tom Gunning, Iris & B. Gerald (Cantor Centre for Visual Arts at Stanford University, 2003)

Materials

Photographic paper

Techniques

Carbon process; Photography

Categories

Drawings; Children & Childhood; Photographs; The Royal Photographic Society; Portraits; RPS Digitisation Project

Collection

Royal Photographic Society Collection