[House and Picket Fence]

Unknown

1850s · Salted paper print from paper negative · Photographs

Many of the most beautiful, charming, and engaging photographs of the nineteenth century survive today divorced from their original historical context. Calotypes especially, because they were so often made for private purposes, usually lack the printed mounts that commonly identify the subject and maker of photographic views produced for commercial distribution. This inviting scene of quiet domestic life survives in a single, exceptionally well-preserved example acquired by the Metropolitan Museum in 1946 as part of a large group of unidentified calotypes found at Malmsbury House, an estate near Talbot's home, Lacock Abbey.

Artist

Unknown

Date

1850s

Medium

Salted paper print from paper negative

Department

Photographs

Credit line

David Hunter McAlpin Fund, 1946