Copy of a Lithographic Print
before May 1844
Medium
Salted paper print from paper negative
Classification
Photographs
Department
Photographs
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Gift of Jean Horblit, in memory of Harrison D. Horblit, 1994
Accession Number
1994.197.2 (6)
Tags
Art Historical Context
William Henry Fox Talbot's *Copy of a Lithographic* (before May 1844) is a pioneering salted paper print made from a paper negative, exemplifying the early days of photography at the Metropolitan Museum of Art Talbot, a British inventor and scholar, developed the calotype process in the 1840s, revolutionizing-making by using paper negatives that could produce multiple positive prints—unlike the one-of-a-kind daguerreotypes of the era. This modest yet groundbreaking medium captures fine details with a soft, matte texture, marking a shift from drawing with light ("photogenic drawing") to reprodu...
About the Artist
William Henry Fox Talbot · 1800–1877
William Henry Fox Talbot (1800–1877), a British polymath whose ingenuity transformed visual representation, was born on 11 February 1800 at Melbury House, Dorset, the only child of William Davenport Talbot of Lacock Abbey and Lady Elisabeth Fox Strangways, daughter of the 2nd Earl of Ilchester. His father died shortly after his birth, leaving the family in financial straits until his formidable mo...