Rhyl, The Pavilion
1860/94
Medium
Albumen print
Dimensions
Image/paper: 12.6 × 19.9 cm (5 × 7 7/8 in.)
Classification
albumen silver print
Department
Photography and Media
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
38271
Art Historical Context
**Rhyl, The Pavilion (1860/94) by Francis Bedford the elegant Victorian seaside architecture of Rhyl, a bustling resort town on the North Wales coast. Bedford, a pioneering British photographer for his precise topographical views, documented this grand pavilion—a hub for entertainment, promenades, and leisure during the mid-19th-century tourism boom. Printed between 1860 and 1894, the image evokes an era when rail travel made coastal getaways accessible to the growing middle class, turning places like Rhyl into symbols of holiday escapism. This albumen silver print, measuring 12.6 × 19.9 cm, ...
About the Artist
Francis Bedford · 1816–1894
Francis Bedford (1816–1894) was a pioneering British photographer, born in London as the eldest son of the church architect Francis Octavius Bedford.) He trained as an architectural draughtsman and lithographer, exhibiting drawings of architectural subjects from his late teens and listing "Lithographic Artist" as his profession in the 1851 census.) In the early 1850s, Bedford turned to photography...