Kelmscott Manor: Attics
Photograph
Kelmscott Manor: Attics
1896
Platinum print
Image: 15.7 x 20.2 cm
Mount: 35.8 x 40.1 cm
Purchase
1981.1198.0005
Inscriptions mount recto (pencil): Kelmscott Manor: Attics
(pencil): FrEdErick H. Evans
(watercolor and ink border surround photograph and title)
mount verso(pencil): GC / negative lost [Gordon Conn's hand]
(pencil): E 78 [circled]
(pencil): Brown silver [Gordon Conn's hand]
(ink): [7 ruled lines with two bands of wash]
(pencil): FrEdErick H. Evans
(watercolor and ink border surround photograph and title)
mount verso(pencil): GC / negative lost [Gordon Conn's hand]
(pencil): E 78 [circled]
(pencil): Brown silver [Gordon Conn's hand]
(ink): [7 ruled lines with two bands of wash]
TextPerhaps best known for his regal photographs of English and French cathedrals, Frederick Evans was a well-known British photographer and member of the Linked Ring, an exclusive photographic society founded by photographer Henry Peach Robinson in 1892 to promote photography’s expressive capabilities. This photograph shows the attic of Kelmscott Manor, a medieval house in England that was occupied for twenty-five years by artist William Morris (1834–1896), founder of the English Arts and Crafts movement. Characteristic of Evans’s work, this formally rigorous image features strong geometric patterns, clear symmetry, and a careful attention to light. A dedicated expert on platinum printing, a photographic process that allowed for rich shadows and subtle tonal variation, Evans chose to abandon his career in photography during World War I when the prices of platinum became prohibitively expensive.
Lisa Hostetler, Ph.D.
Curator in Charge, Department of Photography
Label for A History of Photography [Rotation 1]
May 9–September 28, 2014
Lisa Hostetler, Ph.D.
Curator in Charge, Department of Photography
Label for A History of Photography [Rotation 1]
May 9–September 28, 2014