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Harbour at low tide

Photograph
ca.1845 (photographed)
Artist/Maker
Place of origin

This photograph is the right half of one of the earliest photographic panoramas ever made. It was taken with a paper negative process invented by William Henry Fox Talbot during the late 1830s. There is a deep foreground of clearly defined stones and water-sculpted mud which dominates the view of docked ships and a harbour town. The photographer, Calvert Jones, was introduced to the process by a cousin of Talbot and by close friends who lived near to Jones in South Wales.

Jones' work stands out in the development of early photography because of his ability to fuse his new skill in photography with the influence of his early training in as a watercolorist. Originally a rich purple-brown print, the deep foreground of tide-sculpted mud and clearly-defined stones contrasts with the sweep of the panorama across the bay from the dock-side ships and town to the edge of the harbour wall. The 'double-view' was a technique of particular interest to Jones, who subsequently devised a method of using a binocular camera to produce a wide view on an unjoined single sheet of paper.


Object details

Category
Object type
TitleHarbour at low tide (generic title)
Materials and techniques
albuminised print from a calotype negative
Brief description
Photograph by Calvert Richard Jones, Boats in estuary at low tide in Boulogne-sur-Mer harbour, one half of panoramic photograph, about 1845
Physical description
A deep foreground of clearly defined stones and water-sculpted mud dominates the view of docked ships and a harbour town.
This is a faded, albuminised print with a surface varnish, all four corners have been cut off. It connects with PH.113-1983 to form a panorama.
Dimensions
  • Height: 17.9cm
  • Width: 22.3cm
Object history
Calvert Richard Jones was one of the first to learn of W.H. F Talbot's photographic discoveries in the late 1830s through Talbot's friends and relations who lived near to Jones in South Wales. Subsequently, Jones became one of the few Britons to produced a substantial body of calotypes in Britain and abroad. His work stands out in the early development of photography because of his ability to fuse his technical skill with the influence of his training as a watercolorist.

This photograph is the right side of a two-part panorama. Unusually, each image is in landscape format creating a wide sweep of the whole harbour when the two parts are put together. The colour of the retouching indicates that the original colour was a deep purple-brown with a dark foreground of tide-sculpted mud and stones. Jones began to experiment with two and three part panoramas around 1846, he referred to them as 'joiners' and 'double views'.

The photograph is one of the first depictions of the Saint-Pierre church (Seamen's parish), which began construction in 1844.
Subjects depicted
Summary
This photograph is the right half of one of the earliest photographic panoramas ever made. It was taken with a paper negative process invented by William Henry Fox Talbot during the late 1830s. There is a deep foreground of clearly defined stones and water-sculpted mud which dominates the view of docked ships and a harbour town. The photographer, Calvert Jones, was introduced to the process by a cousin of Talbot and by close friends who lived near to Jones in South Wales.

Jones' work stands out in the development of early photography because of his ability to fuse his new skill in photography with the influence of his early training in as a watercolorist. Originally a rich purple-brown print, the deep foreground of tide-sculpted mud and clearly-defined stones contrasts with the sweep of the panorama across the bay from the dock-side ships and town to the edge of the harbour wall. The 'double-view' was a technique of particular interest to Jones, who subsequently devised a method of using a binocular camera to produce a wide view on an unjoined single sheet of paper.
Associated object
Collection
Accession number
PH.99-1983

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Record createdJanuary 16, 2008
Record URL
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