Image of Gallery in South Kensington
Request to view at the Prints & Drawings Study Room, level F , Case X, Shelf 353, Box F

Group with bathchair in front of Rheola House

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

An ivy clad part of a two-storey country house with bay window and a veranda. There is a group with a bath chair on the lawn in front of the house and a man by the veranda.
Fading to the corners of the photograph


Object details

Category
Object type
TitleGroup with bathchair in front of Rheola House (generic title)
Materials and techniques
salted paper print from a calotype negative
Brief description
Figures with a bathchair in front of an ivyclad part of Rheola House
Physical description
An ivy clad part of a two-storey country house with bay window and a veranda. There is a group with a bath chair on the lawn in front of the house and a man by the veranda.
Fading to the corners of the photograph
Dimensions
  • Height: 18-1cm
  • Width: 22.9cm
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 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.

The façade of Rheola House is pattern of light and dark dominated by horizontal lines of shadow, motifs which Jones often introduced into his compositions. The horizontal lines in this photograph are created by the eves of the roof and a veranda. A wide mass of ivy on the bay window visually links to the carefully composed foreground group of women with a wheelchair. The vertical lines of the standing figures are reflected by the foliage hung veranda supports and their shadows against the house.
Historical context
Rheola House is near Neath in South Wales. 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, Mechanics Institute, Church Place, Neath and at the National Library of Wales, Aberystwyth.
Subjects depicted
Place depicted
Associated objects
Other number
LS4123 - Larry Schaaf number
Collection
Accession number
PH.81-1983

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Record createdSeptember 8, 2008
Record URL
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