[Tree and Brush in Creek Scene]
1853–56
![[Tree and Brush in Creek Scene] by John Dillwyn Llewelyn](https://images.artheonmuseum.org/met/ph/thumb/tree-and-brush-in-creek-scene-287914.webp)
Medium
Salted paper print
Dimensions
Image: 16 × 20.8 cm (6 5/16 × 8 3/16 in.)
Classification
Photographs
Department
Photographs
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Gilman Collection, Gift of The Howard Gilman Foundation, 2005
Accession Number
2005.100.382 (24)
Tags
Art Historical Context
In the mid-19th century, as photography emerged as a revolutionary medium, Welsh pioneer John Dillwyn Llewelyn captured the subtle beauty of the natural world in *Tree and Brush in Creek Scene* (1853–56). This salted paper print, measuring a modest 16 × 20.8 cm, depicts a tranquil creek edged with overhanging trees and dense brush—a quintessential landscape that reflects the era's fascination with unspoiled nature. Llewelyn, a botanist and early adopter of the calotype process, was among Britain's first photographers, experimenting from his South Wales estate in the 1840s. The salted paper pr...
About the Artist
John Dillwyn Llewelyn
John Dillwyn Llewelyn (1810–1882) was a pioneering Welsh photographer and botanist whose innovative images captured the dramatic landscapes of his Penllergare estate and the Welsh coast. Born on 12 January 1810 in Swansea as the eldest son of botanist Lewis Weston Dillwyn and Mary Dillwyn, he inherited the Penllergare estate from his maternal grandfather, Colonel John Llewelyn, upon coming of age ...