Dawn & Sunset

On view

Photography
Princeton Collects

Dawn & Sunset,

1880

Henry Peach Robinson, 1830–1901; born Ludlow, United Kingdom; died Tunbridge Wells, United Kingdom
2024-67

Robinson was by no means the first practitioner of combination printing—see, for example, the photograph on view to the left by Spencer and Company—but his ability to seamlessly merge multiple negatives into a single vignette brought the technique to new levels of refinement. Although Robinson was accused of corrupting the integrity of the photographic medium, this technique allowed him to depict allegorical scenes more compellingly. Here, three negatives are combined to represent the human transformation from infancy to old age.

Information

Title
Dawn & Sunset
Dates

1880

Maker
Henry Peach Robinson
Medium
Albumen print
Dimensions
image: 13.1 × 18.2 cm (5 3/16 × 7 3/16 in.) sheet: 28.2 × 37.7 cm (11 1/8 × 14 13/16 in.)
Credit Line
Gift of Douglas C. James, Class of 1962
Object Number
2024-67
Place Made

Europe, United Kingdom

Signatures
Signed in graphite: H.P. Robinson
Culture
British
Type
photographs, albumen prints
Subject
hearth, Pictorialism, elderly

Purchased by Douglas C. James from the Center for Photography at Woodstock (catalogue #107)
Purchased from Douglas C. James by the Princeton University Art Museum, 2024

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