19thC; Jones Calvert, Ships in dock

This harbour scene is dominated by two ships. Between the war ship with a steam funnel, figure head and hanging anchor and the prow and bowsprit of a tall ship is an expanse of flat grey sea.. A rail line runs across the foreground and a double chain fence edges the harbour. This area is occupied by a wooden bollard, a coiled chain and two coils of rope. In the background, in distant part of the harbour, there are a line of gantries.
This is a dark, aluminised (yellowed) print.

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 Richard Jones learned of these developments in 1839 through a neighbour, who was a cousin of Talbot. Jones made many pictures in the West of England and South Wales, where he lived. 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 made many maritime photographs and often they reveal his interest in technological developments in shipping. Several of his compositions emphasis linear pattern: in this harbour view, a railway line is set into the cobbled quay side surface and a parallel chain divides the foreground of the quay side from the water and the dark hulls of two ships. The columnar steam funnel of the warship is repeated by the foreground bollard, and coiled chain and ropes, and the warship itself is visually linked to the bowsprit and prow of the tall ship by a line of small boats and distant gantries.

The large hull with numerous gun hatches may be 'Goliath' a British naval warship whose screw propeller was fitted at Portsmouth during 1856. During this transitional period, the ships were powered by both sail and steam and still displayed figureheads, as this one does, on the prow.

PH.116-1983