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Fading Away

Photograph
1858 (photographed)
Artist/Maker
Robinson, Henry Peach (photographer)

Photograph by Henry Peach Robinson, Fading Away, albumen print, 1858.

Object details

Categories
Photographs
The Royal Photographic Society
Portraits
Object type
Photograph
TitleFading Away (generic title)
Materials and techniques
Albumen print
Photographic Paper
Albumen Process
Photography
Brief description
Photograph by Henry Peach Robinson, Fading Away, albumen print, 1858.
Dimensions
  • Image height: 238mm
  • Image width: 375mm
Gallery label
Making It Up: Photographic Fictions (2018)
Marta Weiss

This was one of the most famous and controversial tableau photographs of the Victorian period. A depiction of the final moments of a graceful young consumptive surrounded by her family, it was composed from five separate negatives, using a technique that Robinson had learned from O.G. Rejlander. Critics were less concerned with the picture’s overt theatricality than with whether forming a single picture from negatives taken on different occasions constituted a betrayal of photography’s truthfulness.
Credit line
The Royal Photographic Society Collection at the V&A, acquired with the generous assistance of the National Lottery Heritage Fund and Art Fund.
Associated object
PROV.2493-2017 (RPS Group record)
Other numbers
  • XRP1485 - RPS collection - V&A identifier
  • 2003-5001/2/23282 - Science Museum Group accession number
Collection
Department of Photography
Accession number
RPS.2314-2017

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Record createdAugust 22, 2017
Record URL
https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O1410548/fading-away-photograph-robinson-henry-peach/
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