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[The Oriel Window, South Gallery, Lacock Abbey]

probably 1835
Not on view
This mysterious view through the diamond-paned oriel window of Talbot's home is one of the earliest photographs in existence—a remarkable relic of the inventor's earliest attempts to make pictures solely through the action of light and chemicals. He brushed a piece of writing paper with salt and silver nitrate and placed it in a small wooden camera stationed on a mantel opposite the window for an exposure that may have lasted hours. The image is tonally reversed—a negative, though the term did not yet exist—as the paper darkened most where it recorded the bright light of the windows.

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: [The Oriel Window, South Gallery, Lacock Abbey]
  • Artist: William Henry Fox Talbot (British, Dorset 1800–1877 Lacock)
  • Date: probably 1835
  • Medium: Paper negative
  • Dimensions: Sheet: 8.5 × 11.6 cm (3 3/8 × 4 9/16 in.), irregularly trimmed
  • Classification: Negatives
  • Credit Line: The Rubel Collection, Purchase, Ann Tenenbaum and Thomas H. Lee and Anonymous Gifts, 1997
  • Object Number: 1997.382.1
  • Curatorial Department: Photographs

More Artwork

More Artwork
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Scott Monument before Completion, Edinburgh, William Henry Fox Talbot British, Salted paper print from paper negative
Scott Monument before Completion, Edinburgh
William Henry Fox Talbot
1844
Sun Pictures in Scotland
William Henry Fox Talbot
1845
A Scene in a Library, William Henry Fox Talbot British, Salted paper print from paper negative
A Scene in a Library
William Henry Fox Talbot
before March 22, 1844
A Fruit Piece, William Henry Fox Talbot British, Salted paper print from paper negative
A Fruit Piece
William Henry Fox Talbot
before June 1845
Lacock Abbey in Wiltshire, William Henry Fox Talbot British, Salted paper print from paper negative
Lacock Abbey in Wiltshire
William Henry Fox Talbot
before September 1844

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