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The Seine at Rouen

May 1843
Not on view
Talbot traveled to Paris in May 1843 to negotiate a licensing agreement for the French rights to his patented calotype process and to give firsthand instruction in its use. No doubt excited to be traveling on the Continent with a photographic camera for the first time, he made a number of beautiful and complex pictures in Rouen, Orleans, and Paris. In a letter to his mother from Rouen on May 15, 1843, he described the scene depicted here: "Great bustle and commercial activity manifest everywhere. From early dawn to dewy eve incessant rumbling of carts & waggons-Ships constantly loading, unloading, and moving away-At one moment the quay strewed with large barrels-an hour afterwards not one of them left. Weather growing extremely stormy and rainy-nothing to be done in Calotype until it clears up."

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: The Seine at Rouen
  • Artist: William Henry Fox Talbot (British, Dorset 1800–1877 Lacock)
  • Date: May 1843
  • Medium: Salted paper print from paper negative
  • Dimensions: 16.3 x 17.8 cm (6 7/16 x 7 in. )
  • Classification: Photographs
  • Credit Line: The Rubel Collection, Purchase, Lila Acheson Wallace and Anonymous Gifts, 1997
  • Object Number: 1997.382.3
  • 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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