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South Kensington Museum, Nave with engine and part of 'David'

Photograph
1851-1868 (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.

Object details

Categories
Object type
TitleSouth 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', about 1857
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
  • Image height: 204mm
  • Image width: 278mm
  • Card height: 268mm
  • Card width: 331mm
Style
Marks and inscriptions
  • '[text cut off]ture etc. /[text cut off]land & Wales' / IIaa' (ink, mount)
  • natinal Art Library stamp (blindstamp, upper centre mount)
  • 'A.b. LONDON' (department classification label, lower right mount)
Gallery label
(06 03 2014)
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
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.
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
33953

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Record createdJune 30, 2009
Record URL
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