19thC; Jones Calvert, Family group

A girl in a flounced dress and pantaloons, stands next to a seated woman wearing a bonnet and shawl who turns her head towards the girl On the right, a man with his top head in his hand looks towards both of them The sunlight is bright and the shadow from the man and the central part of the image are dark. There is a mass of foliage to the left.

Family Group (Jones and his family)

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.

This is a photograph of the Jones family: a self portrait of Jones with his wife Ann Harriet and their daughter Christina. The photograph records the intimate connection between mother and daughter as they turn towards each other. Jones, who probably moved into the photograph as soon as he had removed the lens cover, is less clearly portrayed. Ann Jones is the most dominant of the three figures, her bonnet and the upper part of her shawl clearly define her against the shade of the background. The composition is balanced by the light areas of Charlotte's dress and the foreground element behind Jones. The arrangement has similarities with pencil and wash studies that Jones made of himself and his family.

PH.33-1983