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A Scene in a Library

before March 22, 1844
Not on view
An exceptional student first at Harrow and later at Cambridge, Talbot was a man of great learning and broad interests. Mathematics, astronomy, physics, botany, chemistry, Egyptology, philology, and the classics were all within the scope of his investigative appetite. The Philosophical Magazine, Miscellanies of Science, Botanische Schriften, Manners and Customs of the Ancient Egyptians, Philological Essays, Poetae Minores Graeci, and Lanzi's Storia pittorica dell'Italia are among the volumes represented in this photograph-truly an intellectual self-portrait. The image appeared as plate 8 in The Pencil of Nature. Paradoxically, A Scene in a Library was taken out of doors, where the light was stronger.

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: A Scene in a Library
  • Artist: William Henry Fox Talbot (British, Dorset 1800–1877 Lacock)
  • Date: before March 22, 1844
  • Medium: Salted paper print from paper negative
  • Dimensions: Image: 13.3 x 18 cm (5 1/4 x 7 1/16 in. )
  • Classification: Photographs
  • Credit Line: Gilman Collection, Gift of The Howard Gilman Foundation, 2005
  • Object Number: 2005.100.172
  • Curatorial Department: Photographs

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Scott Monument before Completion, Edinburgh, William Henry Fox Talbot British, Salted paper print from paper negative
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Sun Pictures in Scotland
William Henry Fox Talbot
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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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