Two men in a doorway with steps thumbnail 1
Image of Gallery in South Kensington
Request to view at the Prints & Drawings Study Room, level F , Case X, Shelf 353

Two men in a doorway with steps

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

Two men pose outside french windows on wide, sunlit steps. The man on the left is standing, his waistcoat and trousers are dark. The man on the right wears a large brimmed sun hat, waistcoat and light coloured trousers. Their positions reflect each other. Each side of the steps are looped borders to flower beds.

This was the first image in the album and it exhibits overall fading and particularly to a wide border round the edge, only the central figures and the open window retain depth of tone. Retouching at the left indicates the original dark colour of the image.


Object details

Category
Object type
TitleTwo men in a doorway with steps (generic title)
Materials and techniques
salted paper print from calotype negative
Brief description
Two man posed on stone steps to a building
Physical description
Two men pose outside french windows on wide, sunlit steps. The man on the left is standing, his waistcoat and trousers are dark. The man on the right wears a large brimmed sun hat, waistcoat and light coloured trousers. Their positions reflect each other. Each side of the steps are looped borders to flower beds.

This was the first image in the album and it exhibits overall fading and particularly to a wide border round the edge, only the central figures and the open window retain depth of tone. Retouching at the left indicates the original dark colour of the image.
Dimensions
  • Height: 15.7cm
  • Image width: 20.5cm
Object history
During the 1830s William Henry Fox Talbot invented a way of making paper negatives and from them multiple paper prints. In doing so, he laid the foundations of modern photography. Calvert Jones learned of these developments in 1839 through a neighbour who was a cousin of Talbot. Jones lived in South Wales and he made many photographs there and in the West of England. He also travelled widely, making photographs on the continent. Jones' work stands out in the early development of photography because he was one of the first to apply a schooled artist's eye to the medium.

Jones used these sun splashed steps as the location for four portraits in this album. The two men in the photograph reflect each other, both as a pattern of dark and light and in their body stances. The use of strong horizontal lines often appears in Jones' work, in this image the stone steps are a sculptural background to the two figures.
Historical context
The steps with french windows appear four times in this album: PH.32-1987, PH.67-1983 and PH.77-1983. The two figures are posed in bright sunlight in a different setting in PH.97-1983.
Subjects depicted
Collection
Accession number
PH.30-1983

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Record createdFebruary 13, 2008
Record URL
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