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The Colosseum

1856
Not on view
Jane St. John was most likely attracted to photography through her close friendship with the Llewelyn family of Penllergare, who affectionately knew her as "Aunt Jane." When she and her husband made an extended tour of Italy in 1856, she became an indefatigable photographer, documenting every stage of their journey as they made their way north from Naples, via Rome, Florence, Venice, and Como. Sending a group of prints to Emma Llewelyn, whose album we display here, she added, "Pray look at me sitting on the wall under the Colosseum. I sat there only a few minutes only to show the size, for as I was doing the photographs alone, I could not stay long of course."

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: The Colosseum
  • Artist: Jane Martha St. John (British, Coln St. Aldwyn, Gloucestershire 1801–1882 Oakley, Hampshire)
  • Date: 1856
  • Medium: Albumen silver print from paper negative
  • Dimensions: Image: 19.5 x 25 cm (7 11/16 x 9 13/16 in.)
  • Classification: Photographs
  • Credit Line: Gilman Collection, Gift of The Howard Gilman Foundation, 2005
  • Object Number: 2005.100.382 (68)
  • Curatorial Department: Photographs
More Artwork
[Emma Charlotte Dillwyn Llewelyn's Album], John Dillwyn Llewelyn  British, Welsh, 128 salted paper prints and albumen silver prints from paper and glass negatives
Multiple artists/makers
1853–56
Mr and Mrs W. Beach, Jane Martha St. John  British, Salted paper print
Jane Martha St. John
1853–56
Commemorative jug, White-glaze Parian ware porcelain, British
British
ca. 1845
[The Great Wave, Sète], Gustave Le Gray  French, Albumen silver print from glass negative
Gustave Le Gray
1857
Stone Pines, Villa Pamfili Doria, Rome, Jane Martha St. John  British, Albumen silver print from paper negative
Jane Martha St. John
1856

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