19thC; Hawarden C, D 198, Dundrum House, grounds, Woodcock Grove ?, c. 1857-64

Sepia photograph, mounted on green card, of a wood

Given Lady Clementina Tottenham, 1939

From departmental notes

'Clementina, Lady Hawarden (Untitled) Photographic Study (or) Study from Life (D.198) c.1857-c.1864 Dundrum House, grounds: Woodcock Grove: view north-west: trees; Multeen River in background. Inscription (verso): No 28 242 x 286 mm PH 457-1968:114 Series 35 Literature: Microfilm: 3.19.152, Also: Virginia Dodier, 'Haden, Photography and Salmon Fishing', Print Quarterly, Ill, 1986, p.47, fig 35 (discussed p.49). This photograph shows the same scene as Francis Seymour Haden's etching A By-Road in Tipperary (1860); possibly in this instance-Lady Hawarden and Haden worked side by side from the same plein air motif. The image appears to be double-printed on the left side, possibly due to the practice of checking the progress of the print while it was in the printing frame, which could lead to inexact registration. Or, the blurring may be due to poor lens coverage'.

Reason For Production: Retail

This is a view of Woodcock Grove, Dundrum, Co. Tipperary, Eire, where the photographer and her husband lived when they were not at their house in South Kensington, London. Trees and woods were favourite subjects for early photographers. The intricacies of their forms could be captured with extraordinary accuracy by the camera, especially after the introduction of the collodion wet plate negative and the albumen printing paper in the 1850s - both of which Lady Hawarden used. Here she composes the photograph by placing the largest tree centrally. Its branches spread beyond the top edge of the negative. At the right the branches of another tree can be seen, conveying the idea of an extensive wood. Hawarden exhibited her photographs successfully at the annual exhibitions of the Photographic Society of London.

457:114-1968