Request to view

This object can be requested via email from the Prints & Drawings Study Room

Bas-relief figure of a Flying Angel

Photograph
1863-1864 (photographed)
Artist/Maker
Place of origin

Photographs and photographers were present from the very beginning of the Victoria and Albert Museum’s history. In 1852 the South Kensington Museum (now the V&A) became the first museum to collect photographs and in 1858 was the first to exhibit them.

Henry Cole, the visionary founding Director of the Museum, saw early on the potential of photography to dramatically extend the visual range of resources available to artists and students and actively sourced photographs for this purpose, supplementing a variety of existing reprographic processes and formats. The photographs, which were initially part of the collection of the National Art Library, were to be used by professors and students as well as by the officers of the various sections of the Museum.

Overlooked until now, female photographers were employed by and played an important role in the Museum’s mission to use photography for these administrative and educational purposes. While the Museum had its own photographic service and photographers, including Isabel Agnes Cowper, it also sourced photographs from independent professionals, including those working abroad. Louise Laffon, the third female member of Le Société Française de la Photographie, produced a series of photographs of objects from the Campana Collection in the Musée Napoléon III in Paris (now the Louvre). In 1864, the V&A purchased 500 works from this series from Laffon through the agent Monsieur E. Cappe. A few examples of Laffon's original gilded mounts survive. These are of particular interest in that they highlight the way in which Laffon masked her gender, each mount bearing the gender-neutral stamp of 'L. Laffon' along with the name of her studio, 'Photographie Lord Byron' (a reference to the street on which her studio was located).

Object details

Categories
Object type
TitleBas-relief figure of a Flying Angel (generic title)
Materials and techniques
Albumen print
Brief description
Photograph by Louise Laffon, part of a series of photographs documenting works in the Musée Napoléon III, Luca della Robbia ware, Bas-relief figure of a Flying Angel, from the Campana Collection, albumen print, ca. 1864
Physical description
A mounted sepia-coloured photograph of a terra cotta sculpture of bas relief of a flying angel.
Credit line
Purchased from Monsieur E. Cappe, 28 June 1864
Object history
Photograph from a set by Louise Laffon from the Musée Napoléon III first series. This set contains a hundred albumen photographs of sculptures in marble, terracottas, Antique bronzes, etc. in the Campana collection. The V&A purchased four additional 'series', acquiring a total of 500 albumen prints.
Subjects depicted
Associations
Summary
Photographs and photographers were present from the very beginning of the Victoria and Albert Museum’s history. In 1852 the South Kensington Museum (now the V&A) became the first museum to collect photographs and in 1858 was the first to exhibit them.

Henry Cole, the visionary founding Director of the Museum, saw early on the potential of photography to dramatically extend the visual range of resources available to artists and students and actively sourced photographs for this purpose, supplementing a variety of existing reprographic processes and formats. The photographs, which were initially part of the collection of the National Art Library, were to be used by professors and students as well as by the officers of the various sections of the Museum.

Overlooked until now, female photographers were employed by and played an important role in the Museum’s mission to use photography for these administrative and educational purposes. While the Museum had its own photographic service and photographers, including Isabel Agnes Cowper, it also sourced photographs from independent professionals, including those working abroad. Louise Laffon, the third female member of Le Société Française de la Photographie, produced a series of photographs of objects from the Campana Collection in the Musée Napoléon III in Paris (now the Louvre). In 1864, the V&A purchased 500 works from this series from Laffon through the agent Monsieur E. Cappe. A few examples of Laffon's original gilded mounts survive. These are of particular interest in that they highlight the way in which Laffon masked her gender, each mount bearing the gender-neutral stamp of 'L. Laffon' along with the name of her studio, 'Photographie Lord Byron' (a reference to the street on which her studio was located).
Bibliographic references
  • Sarti, Susanna. Giovanni Pietro Campana, 1808-1880: the man and his collection. Oxford: Archaeopress, 2001
  • Longpérier, Henri Adrien Prévost de. Le Musée Napoléon III. Architecture, Sculpture, Ornamentation, terres cuites et marbres de l'ex-collection Campana. Cent planches d'aprés les clichés photographiques de M. L. Laffon. Lithophotographs et imprimées per M. Lemercier, accompagnées d'une introduction et de tables explicatives par A. de Longpérier. Paris: 1864.
  • Laffon, L. Table de deux cents épreuves du Musée Napoléon III. 2ème et 3ème serie des épreuves. Paris: 1864.
Collection
Accession number
41470

About this object record

Explore the Collections contains over a million catalogue records, and over half a million images. It is a working database that includes information compiled over the life of the museum. Some of our records may contain offensive and discriminatory language, or reflect outdated ideas, practice and analysis. We are committed to addressing these issues, and to review and update our records accordingly.

You can write to us to suggest improvements to the record.

Suggest feedback

Record createdNovember 27, 2014
Record URL
Download as: JSONIIIF Manifest