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The Open Door

before May 1844
Not on view
Among the most widely admired of Talbot's compositions, The Open Door is a conscious attempt to create a photographic image in accord with the renewed British taste for Dutch genre painting of the seventeenth century. In his commentary in The Pencil of Nature, where this image appeared as plate 6, Talbot wrote, "We have sufficient authority in the Dutch school of art, for taking as subjects of representation scenes of daily and familiar occurrence. A painter's eye will often be arrested where ordinary people see nothing remarkable." With this concept in mind, Talbot turned away from the historic buildings of Lacock Abbey and focused instead on the old stone doorframe and simple wooden door of the stable and on the humble broom, harness, and lantern as vehicles for an essay on light and shadow, interior and exterior, form and texture.

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: The Open Door
  • Artist: William Henry Fox Talbot (British, Dorset 1800–1877 Lacock)
  • Date: before May 1844
  • Medium: Salted paper print from paper negative
  • Dimensions: Image: 14.3 x 19.4 cm (5 5/8 x 7 5/8 in. )
  • Classification: Photographs
  • Credit Line: Gilman Collection, Purchase, Joseph M. Cohen and Robert Rosenkranz Gifts, 2005
  • Object Number: 2005.100.498
  • Curatorial Department: Photographs

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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