Children of the Broad
1890-1891, printed 1893
Medium
photogravure
Dimensions
image: 11.1 × 14.3 cm (4 3/8 × 5 5/8 in.)
Classification
Photograph
Department
CPH
Museum
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Credit
Robert B. Menschel and the Vital Projects Fund
Accession Number
2013.55.1.4
Art Historical Context
Peter Henry Emerson’s *Children of the Broad* captures a quiet moment of rural childhood along the waterways of East Anglia. Created between 1890 and 1891 and printed in photogravure in 1893, the small photograph (roughly 4 by 5 inches) reflects Emerson’s deep interest in the daily life of the Norfolk Broads. As one of the leading figures in late-nineteenth-century British photography, Emerson sought to portray the region’s inhabitants with honesty and sensitivity rather than picturesque exaggeration. The choice of photogravure was significant. This intaglio printing process allowed Emerson t...
About the Artist
Peter Henry Emerson · 1856–1936
Peter Henry Emerson (1856–1936) was born on May 13 at his family's sugar plantation, La Palma Estate, near Encrucijada, Cuba, to an American father, Henry Ezekiel Emerson, and British mother, Jane Harris Billing. A distant relative of Ralph Waldo Emerson and Samuel Morse, he spent his early childhood amid the island's landscapes before moving to Wilmington, Delaware, during the American Civil War ...