1868 ART JOURNAL
Vol. n.s. VII
ver: Aug. 19, 2007
START:
NOTES:
--Italics have been retained from publications, which use them for both titles as well as emphasis. To more easily locate image titles, I have continued this italicization when titles have been rendered in all capitols or put in quotes, however italics have NOT been used when the general subject of an image is mentioned.
--Spelling and typos: Nineteenth-century spellings occasionally differs from currently accepted norms. In addition, British spellings also differ from American useage. Common examples are: “colour” vs. “color”; “centre” vs. “center’” the use of “s” for “z” as in “recognise” vs. “recognize; and the use of one “l” instead of “ll” as in “fulfilment”. While great care has been exercised in transcribing the 19th-century journals exactly as printed, “spell check” automatically corrects many of these differences. An attempt has been made to recorrect these automatic changes, but no doubt some have slipped through. As for typographical errors, these have been checked although no doubt some have managed to slip through the editorial process. For matters of consequence, I will be happy to recheck the original sources if need be for specific references.
--Image numbers listed in articles can be either an entry number in an exhibition, or the photographer’s own image number as found on labels.
--All names have been bolded for easy location. Numbers frequently refer to the photographer’s image number, but can also refer to a number in a catalog for a show. Decide whether to bold or not if can tell.
--It is not always possible in lists of photographers to know when two separate photographers are partners or not, e.g., in a list, “Smith and Jones” sometimes alludes to two separate photographers and sometimes to one photographic company. Both names will be highlighted and indexed but a partnership may be wrongly assumed. Any information to the contrary would be appreciated.
-- Brackets [ ] are used to indicate supplied comments by the transcriber; parenthesis
( ) are used in the original sources. If the original source has used brackets, they have been transcribed as parenthesis to avoid confusion.
--“illus” means that I have the view mentioned and should be scanned and included.
--Articles by photographers about technical matters – when transcribed, only names and titles have been listed. If other names are associated with the paper they are listed as well.
--Meetings of Societies – Names of officers, members attending or referenced, dates and locations of meetings have been given. If the reports are very short or discuss photographs, then the articles have been copied; if administrative or technical in nature, they have not.
--“[Selection]” = This has been used when not all portions of a feature are copied, such as The Photographic News’ “Talk In The Studio”. If the word does not appear, then the entire feature was transcribed.
-- Some journals, e.g., The Art-Journal, cover both photographer and painting/drawing. As they frequently refer to the production of both the photographer and the painter as “pictures” it is not always possible to tell when photography is indicated. If there is doubt, it will be included but a note will be added stating that the names listed may in fact not be photographers.
--Mostly articles totally discussing technical aspects of photography, products, etc. are not transcribed unless they are part of a larger article covering photographs. When technical descriptions are too lengthy to transcribe that is noted.
--Cultural sensitivity – these are direct transcriptions of texts written in the 19th-century and reflect social comments being made at that time. Allowances must be made when reading some texts, particularly those dealing with other cultures.
1868: Art Journal, Jan. 1, vol. n.s. VII, # ?, p. 18:
Photographs of the Holy Land.—We have had frequent occasion to refer to the landscape photographs of Mr. Frank M. Good, of the Minories, as among the best of the class. He has recently issued a series of very deep interest—exceeding a hundred in number—being views in Egypt, Syria, and the Holy Land; places consecrated by the oldest and the grandest of all histories. There is scarcely one in the collection that is not associated with some event commemorated in the Old Testament or the New. The scenes here pictures have been described a thousand times since the Bib le was printed, yet they are as fresh, as interesting, and as exciting as if for the first time placed before us: not can we see them too often. To the enterprise and perseverance of Mr. Good we owe much; the difficulties he had to encounter must have been many and great; he has triumphed over them all, presenting to us a series admirable as mere stereoscopic photographs, but of rare value as accurate “portraits” of a hundred places, every one of which is fruitful of thought, reflection, and gratitude.
1868: Art Journal, Feb. 1, vol. n.s. VII, # ?, p. 29:
Photographs from the Seven Churches of Asia.
At the rooms of the Arundel Society has been placed on view an instructive series of fifty photographs taken by Signor Svoboda, of the remains of the Seven Churches of Asia. The photographer is both artist and amateur, member of the Academy of Venice, and a private gentleman, who, in the course of his travels, wished to make trustworthy transcripts of great historic monuments, interesting not only to him but to the world at large. Friends who shared the enthusiasm of the traveller urged the publication of these photographs as likely to elucidate the history and topography of lands little known, and to throw additional light upon moot points in Biblical research. The complete work, which is nearly ready for publication, in atlas 4to., “handsomely bound,” will consist of a series of fifty original photographs never before taken, with a map of the country, an itinerary to the Seven Churches, together with historical and descriptive accounts. Copies of individual photographs may also be procured separately.
Of the Seven Churches, that of Ephesus naturally obtains most ample illustration. Here were aqueducts, theatres, also the great Temple of Diana, reckoned among the wonders of the world. These photographs prove that Ephesus was designed by nature to become a chief capital in Asia—central for commerce, strong for defence, noble for architectural magnificence and religious ceremonial. That comparatively so little remains of structures which were once the pride of empires, will scarcely be a marvel to those students of history who know that the cradle of civilisation becomes ofttimes her grave. Frequently, as it were, in fulfilment of prophecy, the bittern’s cry is heard beneath the broken arch, and on appealing to these photographs, it is found as a literal fact that the stork builds her nest on the capital of columns. The temples are now desolate that once looked down in pride upon the humble spots which sheltered the Seven churches of Asia. The series of seventeen photographs taken in Ephesus include ‘the Temple of Diana,’ “The Theatre,’ ‘The Prison of St. Paul,’ ‘The Aqueducts and Castle,’ ‘The Great Gymnasium,’ ‘The Odeum,’ ‘The Great Mosque—the ancient church of St. John,’ &c. Every student knows that the surface over which the photographic lens has here taken range was for Art structures and human incident of interest almost beyond parallel. Here to Ephesus came St. Paul from Corinth, and finding certain disciples, abode for a period of two years, persuading, disputing, b aptising. Here dwelt Demetrius, the silversmith, who, having made silver shrines for the image of the goddess, cried out with his craftsmen for the space of two hours in the theatre—the remains of which are now scarcely distinguishable in the general mass of ruins—“Great is Diana of the Ephesians.” Here, too, supreme above the rest, stood the vast temple of the goddess, than which, it is said, the sun in its course saw nothing more magnificent. The foundations of a former temple had been laid with immense substructures; architects of the highest distinction were employed; Croesus, the king of Lydia, lent his aid; and all the Greek cities of Asia contributed subsidies. And when fire brought devastation, the temple was again reared in more than its former magnificence. The Emperor Alexander, we are told, offered the spoils of his eastern conquests if only he might be permitted to inscribe his name upon its walls. The vanity of man has seldom been more manifest; the very site of the great temple is now reduced to conjecture, and the photographs brought to this country by Signor Svoboda of the wonder of the world, display little more than a mass of undistinguishable desolation. And yet we are told that the area of the temple measured 425 feet in length by 220 in breadth, that it contained 127 columns, 60 feet in height, each the gift of a king. The destruction which has devastated the entire region of Asia Minor, the site of the apostolic churches, is symbolised in the fate of Ephesus. This chief city had already sunk into decay by the time when Christianity had overspread the shores of the Mediterranean, and its proud edifices and sumptuous decorations served as materials and enrichments in the mediæval buildings of Europe, and may now be recognised in the jasper columns that support the dome of St. Sophia, and in the marbles which enrich Italian cathedrals. Yet it is this, the wreck of empire, which photography records in literal lines, more eloquent than words, more trustworthy than artist’s sketches dressed for the public eye. Our readers were long ago informed that a railway runs from Smyrna to Ephesus, and thus Signor Svoboda was able to return again and again to his labours. When the sun shone high, and the light became too intense for photographic manipulation, the tourist retreated to the cool shade of a ruined aqueduct or temple. And before his task was ended, Signor Svoboda knew the ancient city so well that he could have threaded his way among its ruins blindfold. We shall hope to find in the promised letterpress not only the excitement of personal adventure, but the instruction gathered of persistent research.
Each of the seven churches obtains illustration; for example, of Ephesus there are seventeen photographs, of Laodicea eleven, of Smyrna ten, of Sardis six, of Pergamos four, of Philadelphia and Thyatira each one. The entire series, though scarcely at all points as complete as might be desired, will prove of no small value to the archæologist, the artist, and the biblical student. The antiquary may possibly desire more detail, indeed it is rather cause for regret that closer studies could not be made of direct Art objects—of statues, entablatures, friezes, capitals, and inscriptions. Still, even to the professed archæologist, facsimile transcripts of the monument of Sesostris at Smyrna, the supposed tomb of St. Luke at Ephesus, and the Niobe, a rock-=cut figure of gigantic size, near to Sardis, not to mention the remains of aqueducts, amphitheatres, &c., will yield material for the illustration of dark and obscure pages in the worlds history. To the architect, the fluted Ionic columns of white marble standing in the valley of Aphrodisias may serve as a model; to the artist, the fine sweep of hills, almost sculpturesque in form, around the Acropolis of Sardis, the exquisite study of Mount Sypilus, and the pretty picture of Thyatire, will be looked upon with delight. To the moralist, there may be theme for speculation in the ancient palace of Croesus, now but a mass of rubble. And, lastly, to the man of science, the incrusted waterfalls of Laodicea, “motionless torrents, silent cataracts that stopped at once amid their maddest plunge,” may bring from Asia some facts to fortify or refute theories broached in Western Europe. The writer of this notice has himself traveled in these Eastern longitudes, and therefore can he estimate, at their true worth, such panoramic views as that of Smyrna taken from the height of Mount Pagus. We have had, both in the pages of literature and in the sketches of artists, much romancing of Eastern travel: when it was our fortune to traverse Palestine and the districts of the Lebanon, it appeared to us that after all the eloquence expended on the East, room specially remained for a faithful and unflattering record. This, at length, the art of photography is about to supply for the most interesting regions of Asia. We have had photographs from India, from the city of Jerusalem and Palestine generally, and now we are glad to welcome a work which registers all that remains of the Seven Churches of Asia Minor.
The whole series may be taken in illustration of the life and labours of the great Apostle of the Gentiles. The eye here follows the paths he trod, or gazes on trees, rocks, valleys, mountains, which have scarcely changed in aspect since the close of the Scripture narrative. The temples still stand, though in ruins, under the shadow of which St. Paul preaches; also yet remain those ancient amphitheatres where they who strove for the mastery were temperate in all things. Whoever may have visited these spots, or in imagination followed these footsteps, must have felt, how intimately connected is the outward scene with the spiritual teaching, and how essential becomes a faithful picture to the full understanding of the sacred text.
1868: Art Journal, Feb. 1, vol. n.s. VII, # ?, p. 38:
The Abbey and Palace of Westminster.—Two remarkable photographs of these noble edifices have recently been submitted to us. They are unquestionably amongst the very finest and most admirable works of their order it has ever been our good fortune to examine. One represents the “Victoria Tower” of the Palace at Westminster. It comprehends the entire tower, which is shown as it rises from amidst the dense mass of miscellaneous edifices that advance in such close proximity to it, the view being taken from a high elevation above the ground. The pictorial effect of this truly magnificent photograph is absolutely perfect, while in exact and complete rendering of details, and in a felicitous combination of the whole to form one noble picture, it leaves nothing to be desired: indeed, so excellent is this example of architectural portraiture, that it excites more than a little surprise while it commands unqualified admiration. To the right of the tower the river is seen, and on its southern bank appears the archiepiscopal palace of Lambeth. The second photograph, also of unusually large dimensions, and in every quality of excellence fully equal to its companion, shows on a grand scale the upper part of the exterior of Henry the Seventh’s Chapel, with its rich clusters of pinnacles, its gorgeous paneling, its pierced parapets, and its quaint crockets, and, above all, its massive arch-buttresses with their elaborate enrichments. Both of these photographs have been taken by Mr. Stephen Ayling, of 493, Oxford Street, to whose technical skill and courage in attempting such colossal works as these we are able to give the very highest praise. A numerous series of photographic views of both the abbey and the Palace of Westminster are in course of preparation by Mr. Ayling.
1868: Art Journal, March 1, vol. n.s. VII, # ?, p. 47:
Obituary.
Antoine François Claudet.
Mr. Claudet, whose death was briefly reported in our columns last month, was born at Lyons, in August, 1797. Many years since he came to England for the purpose of carrying out a project for the production of cylindrical glass shades. Messrs. Chance & Co., the eminent glass-manufacturers of Birmingham, took up the idea, and a house of business was opened in Holborn under the name of Claudet and Houghton. The name of the firm still exists, though we know now whether Mr. Claudet retained any interest in it of late years. Messrs. Chance embarked largely in the scheme, procuring skilled workmen from France for making both shades and the sheet glass, which had previously been made from cylinders. To render less costly the method of cutting the bottoms of both shades and cylinders by hand, Mr. Claudet, who was in every way a man of science, invented an ingenious and simple machine, for which, in 1850, he was awarded a medal by the Society of Arts.
In 1841, shortly after the introduction of the Daguerreotype, Mr. Claudet commenced to practice the use of cameras in this country, and he communicated a paper to the French academy of Sciences upon the discovery of a new process for accelerating the production of the image by the addition of bromide and chloride of iodine to the iodide of silver, thus permitting a portrait to be obtained in from five to fifteen seconds, a hundred times more rapidly than by any process previously in use. This discovery was, with the fixing of the image by the chloride of gold, the completion of Daguerre’s invention. In 1848 he communicated a paper on a new instrument called the “Photographometer,” the object of which was to measure the intensity of the photogenic rays and to compare the sensitiveness of certain compounds. This paper was read before the British Association, in 1849, at Birmingham. In the same year Mr. Claudet communicated a paper to the French Academy upon the use of the “Focimeter,” a new instrument he had invented for the purpose of securing the perfect focus of photographic portraiture. At the Universal Exhibition of 1851 Mr. Claudet received the Council medal from the President of the Jury for his numerous discoveries in photography.
In 1853 Mr. Claudet was elected member of the Royal Society for his various scientific labours and discoveries in connection with photography. His certificate of admission was signed by Sir John Herschel, Sir David Brewster, Professor Faraday, Professor T. Grahame, Professor Wheatstone, Messrs. Babbage, Glaisher, &c. &c. In the same year he had the honour of taking the portrait of her Majesty the Queen and several members of the royal family, and was appointed Photographer in Ordinary to her Majesty. In 1855 he obtained a first-class medal at the French International Exhibition for his eminence in the profession and the superiority of his works. In 1858 Mr. Claudet communicated a paper to the Royal Society upon the Stereomonoscope,” an instrument founded on the “inherent property of the ground glass of the camera to produce in relief the image of the camera obscure.”
In 1862 Mr. Claudet was elected member of the jury at the London International Exhibition, and received the medal of the jury; and in 1865 he was elected member of the jury at the Dublin International Exhibition, and received the medal. Mr. Claudet obtained medals from all the photographic exhibitions where his works were exhibited: London, 1851; Paris, 1855; Amsterdam, 1855; Brussels, 1856; Scotland, 1861; Birmingham, 1861; London, 1863. That which he obtained from the Photographic Society of Scotland was presented to him by the late Sir David Brewster, who upon this occasion highly complimented the recipient.
To enumerate the various papers which Mr. Claudet red before the members of our scientific institutions, or contributed to scientific publications, would be to publish a long list. In the early part of last year there appeared in our Journal two valuable illustrated papers from his pen on “Stereoscopic and Pseudoscopic Illusions.” In all matters connected, either directly or indirectly, with the art of photography, his practical and theoretical knowledge made him an authority, and his labours in that department of artistic science contributed not a little to the advance made in it during the last few years. He was a man of courteous and refined manners, of a highly cultivated mind, associated with the taste and feeling of a true artist. The decoration of a Chevalier of the Legion of Honour was conferred upon him; and the late Emperor of Russia acknowledged his merits in a way honourable to both donor and recipient. Mr. Claudet has left a son in every way qualified to direct the atelier of his father.
1868: Art Journal, April 1, vol. n.s. VII, # ?, p. 73-74:
Photographs of the Architectural Photographic Society.
The collection of photographs formed last year, and now issued to members of the “Architectural Photographic Society,” is not only eminently satisfactory in itself, but it also commends the society to the cordial support of all members of the architect’s profession, and, indeed, to all persons who feel a warm interest in the great Art of Architecture.
An association of subscribing members, such as this society, if (as in the present instance) its plans be well formed and carried out with combined discretion and energy, possesses the power of obtaining collections that may fairly be considered unattainable by any other means. As a matter of course, some equally good photographs of the very same edifices might be taken, and copies of them might be circulated, without the intervention of any kind of society; but then the cost of any such independent course of procedure would be so great, and the results so indefinite and uncertain, that speculative enterprises of the kind may be held to be altogether out of the question. It is also, on the other hand, a characteristic and distinguishing feature of the operations of a photographic society, that each of its yearly issues should constitute a collection, or, at any rate, a group, of subjects more or less decidedly associated with one another by locality, style of Art, class of edifice, or some other element common to them all. Thus, and particularly in the case of architectural subjects, really good service is done to the cause of Art: each individual photograph takes a part with its companions of its own group or collection in illustrating some particular chapter in the history of Art; and all the groups and collections combine to form a comprehensive series of ever-increasing interest, importance, and value.
It is with sincere satisfaction that we heartily commend this Architectural Photographic Society to many of our readers; for their own sakes, advising them to join the ranks of its subscribers. And we desire it to be understood that the society has our sympathy and earnest support solely in consequence of the admirable manner in which, as proved by its latest collection of photographs, it carries on its operations. These photographs, of large size, upwards of twenty in number, of the highest degree of excellence as works of their own order, are carefully mounted and preserved in an appropriate portfolio. It would be possible, however, that a collection such as this might fail to satisfy the members of an architectural institution, notwithstanding the excellence of the photographs themselves, if the subjects did not possess intrinsic claims of their own for admiration, and also if, in treating of these subjects, the points of view were not chosen with sound judgment and true taste. This implies that first-rate photographers ought to be guided, in the execution of the photographs, by the personal directions of an experienced and accomplished architect. And that is exactly what has taken place. The subjects photographed last year were selected by Mr. Seddon—that is, the responsibility of the selection rested with that gentleman, and he himself accompanied the photographers through their tour. Thus this collection of photographs combines the qualities of being exactly the views that a professional architect of the highest ability would select and desire to record, while they also are photographic pictures of the first rank.
Coblentz was fixed as the head-quarters of this very interesting expedition, round which the photographic excursions were to revolve. Most of the places on the banks of the Rhine, from Cologne to Bingen, were visited and explored by Mr. Seddon before the arrival of the photographers on the scene of their future operations; so also were the banks of the Lahn as far as Limburg, and those of the Moselle as far as Münster-Maifeld; and thus, when the whole working force had assembled, it was a comparatively easy matter to form the actual plans of action. The photographs that were most successfully taken in this very attractive region resolve themselves into two groups,--the first, of ecclesiastical buildings, consisting of Laach Abbey, Andernach Church, Limburg Cathedral, Boppard Church, Heisterbach Abbey, Sayn Church, and the Cathedral and Church of Notre Dame at Trèves; and, secondly, secular buildings, including Schloss Elz—a fine example of an old baronial residence, and equally admirable as a photographic picture; two remarkable specimens of early houses of timber construction at Boppard and Rhense; with one bold and impressive view of the Porta Nigra at Trèves. The ecclesiastical subjects comprise both exterior and interior views, with the addition of various details of special importance on a large scale. It will be seen, accordingly, that this collection places before students and lovers of architecture a series of examples of the always interesting and instructive Romanesque and early transition works of the Rhenish provinces, with which it connects the stern magnificence of the Roman gateway and the truly exquisite Gothic church, both of them at Trèves—the last certainly one of the most beautiful relics of the great Art of the middle ages that yet remains to vindicate, on German ground, the reputation of the master-spirits of Gothic architecture. The cathedral of Limburg also must be particularly specified as a most characteristic and interesting transitional structure, deserving the most careful study. And, it may be added, that this early transitional style, which is always so rich in valuable practical suggestion to the architect of our own times, existed in the Rhenish provinces much longer than it did in England; and its remains in those provinces, to which this collection of photographs directs attention in a manner so pleasing and so impressive, are very numerous, and almost always equally attractive and valuable.
1868: Art Journal, April 1, vol. n.s. VII, # ?, p. 79:
Photographs of Palestine, taken for the “Exploration Fund.”—In addition to the singularly fine and valuable collection of photographic views that were taken in the immediate neighbourhood of Jerusalem and within the walls of the Holy City itself, in the year 1865, by the surveying party under the command of Captain Wilson, the society subsequently formed for the searching and complete exploration of Palestine has instructed its explorers to obtain as large a collection as possible of photographs of every interesting and important scene, edifice, ruin, or other object throughout the length and breadth of the country. Up to the present time this latest collection numbers three hundred and forty-three photographs, which may be divided into two groups; the one, in number one hundred and sixty-four, taken in Palestine by the first expedition of the Exploration Society, from November, 1865, to May, 1866, by Corporal H. Phillips of the Royal Engineers, acting under the orders of Captain Wilson, R. E.; and the second group, comprising one hundred and seventy-nine photographs, which were taken in the following year, by the same clever non-commissioned officer, then a sergeant, and attached to the second exploring expedition under the command of Lieutenant Warren, R. E. These photographs, in size 9 by 6 inches, include a very great variety of subjects, and, without exception, they are of the greatest possible value as faithful representations of scenes and objects that are without any parallel in the world. The photographs, also, as photographic pictures, are of the highest order of excellence. They are sold to the public at a very low price, in aid of the funds of the Exploration Society.
1868: Art Journal, July 1, vol. n.s. VII, # ?, p. 123:
The Late M. Claudet.—We desire to state that the establishment formed by M. Claudet is continued by his son, with all the appliances and advantages obtained for it by the late eminent photographer. It is known that he introduced into it many valuable improvements—results, frequently, of his large inventive faculty. From its earliest introduction into England the art found in M. Claudet its most enterprising and energetic supporter and professor: our Journal is greatly indebted to his pen for many admirable contributions on the subject, and we discharged a part only of our obligation to him in the tribute we offered to his memory. M. Claudet, jun., was his assistant during many years prior to his death. The younger follows in the steps of the elder, and has, no doubt, introduced some new features, by which he will gain rather than lost in popularity. The galleries in Regent Street have been thoroughly renovated, and the intelligent activity for which the establishment has long been pre-eminent is, to say the least, continued.
1868: Art Journal, Sept. 1, vol. n.s. VII, # ?, p. 196:
Picturesque “Bits” from Old Edinburgh. A Series of Photographs by Archibald Burns; with Descriptive and Historical Notes by Thomas Henderson. Published by Edmonston and Douglas, Edinburgh; Simpkin, Marshall & Co., London.
Rarely, if ever, have we seen a book, illustrated by the art of the photographer, so thoroughly well done as this: of the whole pictures, fifteen in number, there is not one absolutely imperfect specimen. These rich “bits” of the old Scottish city, so dear to the artist and antiquarian, come out of the camera with remarkable vividness, clearness, and beauty; though the prints are of small dimensions, almost miniature picture, in fact. The subjects, moreover, are well selected, both as to picturesque quality, and as examples of the domestic architecture, now being rapidly swept away north and south of the Tweed, erected by our forefathers. All who have visited Edinburgh will easily recognise such “bits” as ‘High School Wynd, Cowgate;’ ‘Head of West Bow;’ ‘Advocate’s Close, High Street;’ ‘Allan Ramsay’s Shop, High Street;’ ‘John Knox’s House, in the Netherbow;’ ‘Canongate Tolbooth;’ ‘White Horse Close;’ ‘The Towers of James V. at Holyrood;’ ‘The Doorway of Holyrood Chapel;’ ‘Cardinal Beaton’s House.’ These and other “mighty old houses,” as a writer has said, “built long ago, and standing like architectural boulders, dropped by the former diluvium of wealth, whose refluent wave has left them as its monument,” are pleasant pictures to look upon with the eye of an artist. This Edinburgh of the past grows less and less year by year, and will soon live only in such pages as those before us. “Improvements,” either effected or contemplated, have removed, and will remove, all its venerable landmarks.
Mr. Henderson’s text serves as an excellent guide to the several localities illustrated: he gives a succinct and well-digested account of their histories; interspersing his narrative with anecdotes and incidents associated with the various notable occupiers of the edifices brought before the reader. The author professes to be nothing more than “a gatherer of other men’s stuff,” but he has made a serviceable use of the materials with which preceding writers have supplied him.
1868: Art Journal, Oct. 1, vol. n.s. VII, # ?, p. 227:
The Palestine Exploration Fund at length has taken the important step of opening an office at the West-End of London, for the transaction of its business of every kind, and for the reception of all visitors who may desire in person to seek information concerning its proceedings. The office is in a very good situation, at No. 9, Pall Mall East. There the secretary, Mr. Besant, may be found daily, surrounded by the drawings, plans, photographs, printed papers, and other productions of the Exploration Society. We trust that very many of our readers will visit Mr. Besant’s office. Three excellent carte-de-visite portraits of the present chief explorer, Lieutenant Warren, R. E. have just been executed by Mayall and they are sold at the office for the benefit of the “Fund.” Thoroughly characteristic as likenesses, as pictures these portraits are amongst the most successful productions of the eminent photographer. We observe with much satisfaction that a popular illustrated lecture on the present exploration of Palestine is announced by the authorities of the “Fund,” full particulars of which may be obtained at the office; it ought to be delivered through the length and breadth of the land in the coming winter and the following spring. We hope soon to hear that the council of the Exploration Society will be prepared to issue, in the form of a small and cheap popular volume, a clear and explicit explanation of their aims and of their proceedings—in a word, that they will publish their own Handbook of Palestine Exploration.
1868: Art Journal, Nov. 1, vol. n.s. VII, # ?, p. 247-248:
Art in Scotland and the Provinces.
Glasgow.—Mr. Breese, a photographer residing in Glasgow, has, by the adoption of a new process, succeeded in taking several landscapes and sea views under the effect of moonlight—all of which, when placed in the stereoscope, are seen to be as perfect in their several parts as the most minutely finished picture. In one of the slides, a very marvel of delicacy, an effect of broad moonlight—a light wholly different from that of day—is shown on a breaking wave; in another the moon is seen shining faintly through the rifts of a cloudy sky; a third shows a calm lake in deep shadow; and a fourth a beach from whence the tide has newly ebbed, with the moonlight gleaming on the wet sand. But perhaps the most perfect work in the collection is the photograph of a marble statue, also taken by the aid of the moonbeams. All the lines and angles of this figure are softened and smoothed down by the pale light, and it stands out from the surrounding darkness, dim and shadowy, but most exquisitely beautiful. Altogether, the collection, which contains many other views besides those indicated, is of a character that cannot fail to largely increase the reputation possessed by Mr. Breese.
1868: Art Journal, Nov. 1, vol. n.s. VII, # ?, p. 257:
Photographic Views of Greece.
Few parts of the world are so well known, to those who have never actually visited them, as the vicinity of Athens. To every student and lover of Art, Attica has long been holy ground. Paintings and engravings, models and illustrated volumes, are not the sole sources of information that we possess as to the glories of the age of Pericles, for some of the noblest wrecks that have escaped the “tooth of Time” are to be found in the sculpture galleries of the British Museum.
But, while we may thus be to a great extent familiar with the genius of Grecian Art, we are far from being able to share the impressions of those who have sought the traces of that genius in her own native sunlight. A wounded Amazon, or a fractured Centaur, under the gloomy skies of Bloomsbury, has not the same tale to tell as beneath the pines or the laurels that shadow the ruins of a Grecian temple. St. Pancras Church presents a very creditable copy of the Erectheum, and yet the view of the caryatides which we may obtain from the roof of an omnibus is intolerably out of harmony with a remembrance of that exquisite relic, lighted up by such rays as dance on the waters of the Mediterranean. We, untravelled Englishmen if we are, may know much about what is Grecian, and yet little about Greece.
M. Le Baron des Granges has been labouring, and that with great success, to take us a step, or rather a stage, further in our intimacy with the remains of the golden age of Art. A set of some thirty-give photographic views of Athens and its environs is on view at Messrs. Colnaghi’s, which brings some of the most famous of the Attic relics and ruins very palpably before the sense of sight. It is, perhaps, hardly possible for those who are not familiar with the effect of Southern sunlight, with the vegetation of the littoral districts of the South of Europe, and with the barren detail of the débris of the scala limestones of the Mediterranean, to recognise the truthful force of some of the landscapes in question. Others, again, speak to every eye. And those who know from the experience the difficulties with which the draughtsman and photographers have to contend in scenes similar to those selected by M. Des Granges, will most highly value the whole of his very beautiful collection.
Photography is, perhaps, ever more successful than in its representation of masony. When the design has been originally beautiful, the material good, and the workmanship appropriate, and when the slowly decomposing action of the atmosphere has been long acting on the object, with a caprice that can be neither imitated nor explained, the effect of a good architectural photograph is at times almost magical. Such is especially the case as to the large courses of masonry that flank the “caryatides” of the Erectheum. Again, we would call attention to a similar effect in the view of the temple of Niké Apteros,--the wingless Victory that has long since run, as she could not fly, away from the spot,--taken from the Pinacotheca. The panorama of Athens is a view of striking truthfulness and beauty, and it must have demanded great skill on the part of the photographer to produce so long extended a scene, without evincing any marks of the points of junction of the constituent parts.
The view of the Pnyx is a wild and striking landscape, lighted up by a reflection from a white dwelling-house to the extreme left of the spectator. The rude limestone valley of the Styx is one of those scenes which will hardly be realised, even with the aid of a photograph, by those to whom such scenery is altogether novel and strange.
There is a wonderful little bit of Mediterranean sea-coast, in “The Scyronian rocks, near Megara.” You look down on the strong and massive sea-wall, upon the placid and slumbering sea, and on the glittering sand and pebbles of the beach, and can almost forget the picture in the illusion which it creates. The most beautiful of the delineations, whether regarded as a landscape or as a photograph, is that of the Lake of Pheneum, in Arcadia, with the mountains of Aroani in the distance. The aerial perspective is that of nature herself, and the silvery tone of the distant mountains gives the very gleam and glitter of the limestone of which they are composed. In the foreground are mimosa-like shrubs, the dark, clean cut outlines of their foliage contrasting sharply with the sunlit sea and mountains beyond; and a single head of the tall feathery grass that is common on the shores of the Mediterranean forms such an object to arrest the eye as Turner was so skilful in selecting for some of his most striking foregrounds. The photograph in question is one of the most perfect bits of landscape we have ever seen produced by the sun.
Among the delineations are two views of the Temple of Theseus, four of the Temple of Jupiter Olympius, three of the Parthenon, four of the Erectheum and its well-known caryatides, two of the Temple of Minerva at Corinth, one of the Temple of Minerva at Cape Sunium, one of that of Niké Apteros, one of the Acropolis and the Museion, one of the propylæa and the Pinacotheca, and one of the lonely ruin of the Pnyx. Thus it will be seen that, as far as selection is concerned, an admirable series of noble monuments has been delineated by the Baron des Granges, while the variety of the views of the same building, both in point of observation and as regards distance from the observer, is such as to present to the mind an unusually vivid impression of these famous and noble ruins.
In some of the views single features strike the eye with remarkable force. An instance occurs in the sharp fluting of the columns of the temple of Jupiter Olympius, as seen from Callirrhoe, and another, in a similar detail, in the north-east view of the Parthenon. A single column, with its rich Corinthian capital, the sole survivor, with one exception, of a fallen range, strikes the imagination with wonderful force. It recalls one of the most picturesque of the Italian monuments, a column which was erected by Pompey the Great at the Port of Brindisi, the twin sister of which was over-thrown by an earthquake, and the graceful capital of which is adorned by heads of tritons and sea-gods peeping out from the foliage of the acanthus.
The west view of the Parthenon deserves notice for the curious distortion of perspective which has been effected by the action of the lens. The question of how far a perspective drawing accurately represents the visual image formed on the retina by the object represented by that drawing is one of considerable interest, and by no means easy of solution. Photography furnishes phenomena that may throw some light on this question. It has been thought by many artists that there are no absolutely straight vertical lines seen by the eye, except in the direct line of vision. The outlines of the columns of the Parthenon on either side, in this view, are visibly and disproportionately curved, and yet the effect of the general view is neither unnatural nor unpleasing. A main difference between the photograph and the natural object consists in the fact, that the curved lines of the former may be brought into the centre of vision, while each vertical line in nature, when looked at, becomes central, and therefore undoubtedly straight. That parallel lines, towards the limits of vision, are represented by curves on the retina, there is no doubt. How far these curves are faithfully represented by the rules of linear perspective is another matter, and one which may be to some extent illustrated, if not elucidated, by a careful examination of the photographs of Hellas. We recommend our readers to pay a visit to the show-rooms of Messrs. Colnaghi. The thirty-seven photographs which are now to be seen here are also to be seen at Mr. Ryman’s, High Street, Oxford. They will be as interesting to the classical scholar as to the lover of Art, or the student of architecture, and form a most valuable addition to our means of becoming more intimately acquainted with the genius of Grecian Art. As examples of Photography these pictures are of a very high order, and show the Baron possesses true artistic feeling.
1868: Art Journal, Dec. 1, vol. n.s. VII, # ?, p. 286:
Mr. G. W. Wilson, of Aberdeen, has sent us some charming photographic “cartes” of scenery in Scotland. They are recent additions to the extensive series he has been some years producing, having, we imagine, by this time photographed every spot rendered famous by tradition or remarkable for its peculiar grandeur or beauty—north, south, east, and west. They are admirably done; clear, distinct, and forcible in effect, the points of view being chosen with judgment and artistic skill. Scotland is greatly indebted to this excellent artist, and all tourists in the country owe him much for the pleasant memories he will bring to home fire-sides.