[Two Stags and Roe Buck]

Art Historical Context

**Two Stags and Roe** (ca. 1858) is a captivating salted paper print by Horatio Ross, a pioneering Scottish and avid sportsman. Measuring just 15.9 x 20.6 cm, this intimate photograph from the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Gilman Collection showcases Ross's skill in capturing wildlife during the formative years of photography. The image features two stags and a roe buck, likely poised in the rugged Scottish Highlands, evoking the thrill of deer stalking—a passion that defined Ross's life. Created using the salted paper process, invented by William Henry Fox Talbot in the 1830s, this print represents one of the earliest photographic techniques. Paper is salted and sensitized with silver nitrate, then exposed to light to produce a rich, warm-toned positive image directly from a negative. Ross, a British army officer turned amateur photographer, mastered this calotype-derived method around 1850, producing some of the first outdoor wildlife studies. His works bridged art and sport, documenting nature with remarkable clarity before modern cameras. This piece highlights photography's rapid evolution in the 1850s, transforming how we perceive the natural world. Ross's deer images, prized for their authenticity, offer a window into Victorian-era hunting culture and the dawn of environmental portraiture, reminding visitors of photography's power to freeze fleeting moments in time.

About the Artist

Horatio Ross · 1801–1886

Horatio Ross was born in Scotland in 1801 and became one of the most remarkable early practitioners of photography in Britain, as well as a celebrated sportsman, marksman, and Highland gentleman. Before photography claimed his deepest attention, Ross had already distinguished himself as one of the finest rifle shots in the country, winning numerous competitions and earning a reputation as an outst...