Fading Away, from "Illustrated Times"

Henry Peach Robinson

October 5, 1858 · Wood engraving · Drawings and Prints

This wood engraving reproduces a famous pictorial photograph constructed by Henry Peach Robinson in 1858. To portray the peaceful death of a young girl surrounded by her grieving family, Robinson skillfully combined five different negatives. Although imaginary, many contemporaries criticized the subject as too painful to be tastefully rendered by such a literal medium as photography. The controversy made Robinson the most famous photographer in England and a leader of the Pictorialist movement which advocated painterly effects. Wood engravings played a crucial part in circulating images in the nineteenth century, as part of popular weekly journals such as the "Illustrated London News" and, as here, the "Illustrated Times," which ran from 1855 to 1872.

Artist

Henry Peach Robinson

Date

October 5, 1858

Medium

Wood engraving

Department

Drawings and Prints

Credit line

Gift of Donato Esposito, 2016