Image of Gallery in South Kensington
Request to view at the Prints & Drawings Study Room, level D , Case C, Shelf 117

Painted photograph of a tile design for the Grill Room, South Kensington Museum

Painted Photograph
ca. 1868-1885 (made)
Artist/Maker
Place of origin

Blue and white painted photograph of a roundel design for tiles. A fleet of four medieval ships is depicted, port-bow view. Propelled by both sails and oars and with pennants fluttering, they advance on the open water away from a mountainous landmass silhouetted on the horizon. Armed figures can be clearly seen on board the nearest ship. It dominates the centre-left foreground, an anchor visible at its bow. A blue border encloses the composition. Some brushstrokes of blue watercolour in the margins of the paper.


Object details

Categories
Object type
TitlePainted photograph of a tile design for the Grill Room, South Kensington Museum (generic title)
Materials and techniques
Salted paper print (probably), overpainted in watercolour
Brief description
Painted photograph of an E. J. Poynter dado tile design for the Grill Room, South Kensington Museum: 1 of 11 land and seascape subjects. About 1868-1885.
Physical description
Blue and white painted photograph of a roundel design for tiles. A fleet of four medieval ships is depicted, port-bow view. Propelled by both sails and oars and with pennants fluttering, they advance on the open water away from a mountainous landmass silhouetted on the horizon. Armed figures can be clearly seen on board the nearest ship. It dominates the centre-left foreground, an anchor visible at its bow. A blue border encloses the composition. Some brushstrokes of blue watercolour in the margins of the paper.
Dimensions
  • Of paper height: 23.6cm (maximum)
  • Of paper width: 23.7cm (maximum)
  • Of image diameter: 21.5cm (approx.)
Style
Object history
E. J. Poynter was invited to tender for the decoration of the Grill Room in November 1865. Many of Poynter's original dado tile designs for the Grill Room are signed with his monogram 'EJP' and the date 1868. That which is reproduced in this painted photograph (Museum object number 1121:8) bears no such information, but it was probably made at around the same time. Indeed, judging from the Seventeenth Report of the Science and Art Department, the Grill Room's dado tiles were all installed by the end of 1869 at the latest. It is not clear when exactly J. Ireland Williamson's painted photographs of the Grill Room tile designs were made, but this particular example was received by the Museum in March 1885. At one time it seems to have been mistaken for Poynter's original design: the latter's object number has been written in the lower right-hand margin of the paper and subsequently crossed through.
Production
This object is probably a salted paper print. According to Mark Haworth-Booth, nineteenth-century photographs made using salted paper were ideal for overpainting because of their matte surface; colour photography only became commercially available in the early twentieth century.
Subjects depicted
Association
Associated object
1121:8 (Original)
Bibliographic references
  • p. 455 Seventeenth Report of the Science and Art Department. London: printed by George E. Eyre and William Spottiswoode for H.M.S.O., 1870
  • p. 217 Fineman, Mia. Faking It: Manipulated Photography Before Photoshop. New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2012
  • pp. 139-141; figs. 153-156; pls. XXVII-XXIX Physick, John. The Victoria and Albert Museum: The History of Its Building. London: The Victoria & Albert Museum, 1982
  • p. 111 and pl. 15 Sheppard, F. H. W. (general ed.). Survey of London, vol. XXXVIII: The Museums Area of South Kensington and Westminster. London: Athlone Press, University of London, 1975
Collection
Accession number
PH.172A-1885

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Record createdJuly 14, 2016
Record URL
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