South Kensington Museum, Nave with engine and part of 'David'
Photograph
1856 (photographed)
1856 (photographed)
| Artist/Maker | |
| Place of origin |
Photographs and photographers were present from the very beginning of the V&A's history and the Museum has an extensive collection of images from the 1850s through to the present which documents the construction and development of the V&A and the South Kensington site.
Originally collected by the National Art Library as part of a programme to record works of art, architecture and design in the interest of public education, these topographic and architectural views were valued as records and as source material for students of architecture and design. As well as being crucial records of the history of the V&A, and an important element within the National Art Library's visual encyclopaedia, these photographs are also significant artefacts in the history of the art of photography.
Originally collected by the National Art Library as part of a programme to record works of art, architecture and design in the interest of public education, these topographic and architectural views were valued as records and as source material for students of architecture and design. As well as being crucial records of the history of the V&A, and an important element within the National Art Library's visual encyclopaedia, these photographs are also significant artefacts in the history of the art of photography.
Object details
| Categories | |
| Object type | |
| Title | South Kensington Museum, Nave with engine and part of 'David' (popular title) |
| Materials and techniques | Albumen print |
| Brief description | Mounted albumen print, photographed by Charles Thurston-Thompson, South Kensington Museum (the 'Brompton Boilers'), Nave, showing engine, and lower half of cast of Michelangelo's 'David', 1856 |
| Physical description | A photograph showing the interior view of a display space with a galleried wall. There is an engine mounted on wheels in the foreground. In the background can be seen the lower portion of a cast of 'David'. |
| Dimensions |
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| Style | |
| Gallery label | Gallery 100 ‘A History of Photography’, 2014-2015, label text:
Charles Thurston Thompson (1816–68)
Nave of the South Kensington Museum
About 1857
This photograph shows artworks being installed in the new iron building of the South Kensington Museum. Through the doorway are the legs of the plaster cast of Michelangelo’s David, presented to the Museum by Queen Victoria in 1856. The Museum was the first to install gas lighting for evening openings, and a lighting fixture is visible at the top of the frame.
Albumen print
Museum no. 33:953
(06 03 2014) |
| Production | Anonymous: |
| Subjects depicted | |
| Place depicted | |
| Summary | Photographs and photographers were present from the very beginning of the V&A's history and the Museum has an extensive collection of images from the 1850s through to the present which documents the construction and development of the V&A and the South Kensington site. Originally collected by the National Art Library as part of a programme to record works of art, architecture and design in the interest of public education, these topographic and architectural views were valued as records and as source material for students of architecture and design. As well as being crucial records of the history of the V&A, and an important element within the National Art Library's visual encyclopaedia, these photographs are also significant artefacts in the history of the art of photography. |
| Associated object | 33:953 (Version) |
| Bibliographic reference | Julius Bryant, ed. Art and Design for All. The Victoria and Albert Museum London: V&A Publishing, 2011. ISBN: 9781851776665. |
| Collection | |
| Accession number | E.1074-1989 |
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| Record created | December 9, 2008 |
| Record URL |
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