In the Valley of the Mole
One of the first English photographers to earn a living from the medium, Robert Howlett is known primarily for his photographs of the steamship, The Great Eastern, commissioned by the London Times in 1857. Earlier in his career, however, he was an artist-amateur who photographed rustic cottages and picturesque landscapes, such as this one, for his own aesthetic pleasure. In this photograph he resolved the relationship of cart and river so perfectly that the balance seems inevitable. Like Constable's Hay Wain (1821), the photograph addresses the temporality of man's industry within nature's continuity and confirms the peaceable equation established between them in Romantic art.
Artwork Details
- Title: In the Valley of the Mole
- Artist: Robert Howlett (British, 1831–1858)
- Date: 1855
- Medium: Albumen silver print from glass negative
- Dimensions: Image: 20.4 x 25.5 cm (8 1/16 x 10 1/16 in.)
Mount: 30.5 x 43.7 cm (12 x 17 3/16 in.) - Classification: Photographs
- Credit Line: Purchase, Harrison D. Horblit and Harriette and Noel Levine Gifts and David Hunter McAlpin Fund, 1988
- Object Number: 1988.1033
- Curatorial Department: Photographs
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Multiple artists/makers
1850s and 1860s
Robert Howlett
November 18, 1857
Robert Howlett
ca. 1857
Robert Howlett
George Downes
1857–1858
Robert Howlett
1857, printed 1863–64
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