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Image of Gallery in South Kensington
Request to view at the Prints & Drawings Study Room, level F , Case X, Shelf 103, Box B

The Imperial Yacht, La Reine Hortense, Le Havre

Photograph
1856–57 (made)
Artist/Maker
Place of origin

Gold-toned albumen print from a wet collodion negative of the imperial yacht 'La Reine Hortense', docked at Le Havre in the north of France. The harbour front is visible behind the ship, with a small number of people and a row of shops. Sailors are visible aboard the yacht and the water refects the masts of the vessel in the foreground.


Object details

Categories
Object type
TitleThe Imperial Yacht, La Reine Hortense, Le Havre (generic title)
Materials and techniques
Gold-toned albumen print from a wet collodion negative
Brief description
Photograph by Gustave Le Gray, photograph of the imperial yacht 'La Reine Hortense' at Le Havre. French, 1856. Part of the Chauncey Hare Townshend bequest.
Physical description
Gold-toned albumen print from a wet collodion negative of the imperial yacht 'La Reine Hortense', docked at Le Havre in the north of France. The harbour front is visible behind the ship, with a small number of people and a row of shops. Sailors are visible aboard the yacht and the water refects the masts of the vessel in the foreground.
Dimensions
  • Height: 32.3cm
  • Width: 41.5cm
Dimensions taken from Brian Coe & Mark Haworth-Booth, A Guide to Early Photographic Printing Processes. London: The Victoria and Albert Museum in association with Hurtwood Press, 1983.
Gallery label
Photography Centre 2018-20: Collection in Focus: Chauncy Hare Townshend (1798–1868) Chauncy Hare Townshend was one of the few serious collectors of photography in the early years of its development. Apart from Prince Albert, he remains the only identifiable British private collector of early photographs on such a scale. He was an extremely wealthy art collector and connoisseur who moved in the highest social and literary circles – Charles Dickens even dedicated Great Expectations to him. Townshend bequeathed his large art collection, including paintings, furniture, gemstones, books and coins, as well as his photographs, to the South Kensington Museum (now the V&A) in 1868. His impressive photography collection ranged from images of political, military and contemporary events to a particularly striking group of French fine art photographs. Practising photographers tended to collect photographs, exchanging works as examples of style and process. But Townshend, who was not a photographer, recognised both photography’s documentary value, and even more so, its exciting new artistic capabilities. 11. Gustave Le Gray (1820–84) The Imperial Yacht, La Reine Hortense, Le Havre 1856–57 Albumen print Museum no. 68006
Credit line
Bequeathed by Chauncey Hare Townshend
Subjects depicted
Place depicted
Bibliographic reference
Coe, Brian & Haworth-Booth, Mark. A Guide to Early Photographic Printing Processes. London: The Victoria and Albert Museum in association with Hurtwood Press, 1983.
Collection
Accession number
68006

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Record createdJuly 28, 2003
Record URL
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