The Seine at Rouen

William Henry Fox Talbot

May 1843 · Salted paper print from paper negative · Photographs

Talbot traveled to Paris in May 1843 to negotiate a licensing agreement for the French rights to his patented calotype process and to give firsthand instruction in its use. No doubt excited to be traveling on the Continent with a photographic camera for the first time, he made a number of beautiful and complex pictures in Rouen, Orleans, and Paris. In a letter to his mother from Rouen on May 15, 1843, he described the scene depicted here: "Great bustle and commercial activity manifest everywhere. From early dawn to dewy eve incessant rumbling of carts & waggons-Ships constantly loading, unloading, and moving away-At one moment the quay strewed with large barrels-an hour afterwards not one of them left. Weather growing extremely stormy and rainy-nothing to be done in Calotype until it clears up."

Artist

William Henry Fox Talbot

Date

May 1843

Medium

Salted paper print from paper negative

Department

Photographs

Credit line

The Rubel Collection, Purchase, Lila Acheson Wallace and Anonymous Gifts, 1997