Three figures by a wheelbarrow in the grounds of Rheola House, Neath

The right side of a two-part panorama, this photograph shows the location of Rheola House with hills rising to the right of the house. On the left, the end of the house can be glimpsed through the trees. In a foreground group of three figures, the man in the centre is stands holding a bessom broom, the man on the left is seated on the handle of a wooden wheelbarrow and the third smaller figure is sitting on the lawn.
This is a salted paper print with fading to the sides of the image and finger prints along the lower edge.

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.

This photograph is the right side of an early two-part panorama of Rheola House, South Wales. This side of the panorama shows the location of the house in the surrounding hills. The composition is similar to an earlier pencil and ink study made by Jones in 1836 for which he may have used an optical aid. Like his drawing, Jones has included groups of figures in front of the house, although the arrangements are less successful in the photographic version. The two parts of this panorama link together, but as a single composition it is unhappy: the solitary seated figure and the group of three fail to relate to each other across the wide foreground.

Rheola House is near Neath. An estate of 120 acres, it was the home of John Edwards, who took over the property in 1829. He assumed the name of his benefactor, William Vaughan, and became known as John Edwards Vaughan. Papers from the Rheola Estate are held by Neath Antiquarian Society, West Glamorgan Archive Service, mechanics Institute, Church place, Neath and at the National Library of Wales, Aberystwyth.

PH.80-1983