The photographic news

• Bandzählung: 7.1863
• Erscheinungsdatum: 1863
• Sprache: Englisch
• Signatur: F 135
• Vorlage: Hochschule für Grafik und Buchkunst Leipzig
• Digitalisat: Hochschule für Grafik und Buchkunst Leipzig
• Digitalisat: SLUB Dresden
• Rechtehinweis: Public Domain Mark 1.0
• URN: urn:nbn:de:bsz:14-db-id1780948042-186300004
• PURL: http://digital.slub-dresden.de/id1780948042-18630000
• OAI: oai:de:slub-dresden:db:id-1780948042-18630000
• Sammlungen: LDP: Historische Bestände der Hochschule für Grafik und Buchkunst Leipzig
• Sammlungen: Fotografie
• Strukturtyp: Band

• Digitalisat: SLUB Dresden
• Strukturtyp: Ausgabe

38 THE PHOTOGRAPHIC NEWS. [January 23, 1863. and 74). These consist of various views at Windsor and Frogmore, and of the ruins of Grey Abbey, County Down. Some of these have a little tendency to hardness and want of atmosphere. A few clouds, or even a tinted sky. would have been a material improvement. The bulk of the portraiture and figure photography is collected in one room distinct from the landscapes. For the purpose of varying the monotony, however, a few portraits and figures are hung amongst the landscapes, and in giving a detailed notice we shall proceed in consecutive order ac cording to the catalogue, without reserving such portraits for a place in their own classification. A couple of studies by Mr. H. P. Robinson, " The May Gatherer ” (No. 5), and “ The May Queen ” (No. 6), are very charming. “ The May Gatherer ” is a pleasing rustic girl reclining on a grassy knoll, with a heap of hawthorn blossom. The position is graceful and natural, and the com position and photography both good, whilst the keeping of the sentiment is admirably preserved. “ The May Queen ” is a vignetted head of a sweetly simple and winning village girl, with a wreath of May blossoms entwined around her head. The photography is very good, the picture soft, round and beautifully modelled; but it is the charming expression, and wonderfully beautiful rendering of the eyes, which attracts attention most. We have seen a copy with the lines from Tennyson’s “ May Queen ” appended, which the picture appeared admirably adapted to illustrate : 2" There s many a black, black eye they say, But none so bright as mine.” Altogether we might take this as a very satisfactory em bodiment of “ Little Alice.” The next subject-pictures which come under our attention are also executed in Leamington, and are by Bullock Brothers. The most striking and ambitious of these is the " Footsteps of Angels ” (No. 20). In examining such a picture, the verdict given will much depend on the precon ceived notions of the critic as to the legitimacy of the effort to make a picture by photographic means. Those who deride the attempt will chuckle over certain shortcomings here, as evidence of the inherent unfitness of the art to illus trate a poetical idea, or produce a picture with a story. We, who have always maintained the art-power of photography, and the legitimacy of every effort to develop its pictorial capabilities, examine such a picture with much interest, and regard its shortcomings with leniency. The picture fills nearly a whole sheet of paper, and the photography is de cidedly good. The general effect as a picture, and the com position, are also good. The idea to be illustrated is that expressed in Longfellow’s pretty little lyric, from -which the title of the picture is borrowed, and which many of our readers may remember. The time is evening:— "When the hours of day are numbered, And the voices of the night Wake the better soul that slumbered, To a holy calm delight ; Then the forms of the departed Enter at the open door; The beloved, the pure hearted, Come to visit me once more.” An elderly gentleman sits in an apartment lighted only by the fire; and, kneeling at his feet, is a female figure, in tended, we presume, to represent the “ Being beauteous,” the departed love, referred to in the after lines. It is in this figure the chief failure is found ; the choice of a model has been especially unfortunate, as the figure and face are not of that light, delicate, fragile, or refined type, which is suggestive of a disembodied state, and especially of the “ messengers divine ” referred to. As suggestion, not repre sentation, is the only possibility in regard to such an idea, the selection of a suitable model was of vital importance, and especial care should have been taken to secure one with as little of material mould as possible. Again, the treatment of the figure is defective. There is nothing shadowy or indefinite here; the form is as essentially mundane and palpable as that of a figure still in the flesh. The pictorial treatment of things unseen and immaterial must necessarily be more or less conventional, and all we can demand is that they shall in some way or other suggest the notion of dis embodiment. It may be a dimly defined “ shade,” or a “ luminous shadow,” or it may be that uncertain substance of which Milton speaks— " If substance might be called what shadow seemed, Tor each seemed either " But we want the idea suggested by the presentment in some way. This figure is very real, and an arm which is ex tended, unrelieved by any reflected light, is very black. Photography possesses resources for giving the air of imma teriality we demand, and in such a case they should have been used. The effect of the firelight is very good, and for the most part the shadows in the deep gloom of the apartment are transparent and satisfactory. There are some lights for which we cannot quite account, regarding the fire as the sole source of light as the picture represents it. For instance, the bald head and the grey whiskers of the male figure are well lighted on the side opposite to the fire. On the whole the attempt is so bold, the result in some respects so good, and success missed rather by the want of a little more thought or effort than by the inherent difficulties in the way, that we have devoted more space to a consideration of its faults than we should have done if it had been a decided failure. And we intend these remarks rather as encouragement than censure. Two or three other large genre pictures, by the same artists, are less meritorious. A pair, “ Mischief ” and “Startled” (No. 47), do not express the ideas, and the models are ill chosen. “Confound the Screw” (No. 69), a musician tuning a violoncello, and perplexed by the diffi culty of turning the peg or screw with one particular string, indulges in the expletive which gives the picture its title. Here the. idea is well expressed, and the composition good ; but the photography is a little coarse and hard. The prints on resinized paper, from enlarged negatives, by Mr. Alfred Harman, will excite as much interest amongst photographers as any pictures in the exhibition, as they are decidedly the largest and best pictures of the kind which have been exhibited. The method of en larging by two operations, first producing a transparency, and from that an enlarged negative, is one we- have recom mended for years. It has for some time been practised to a small extent. Mr. Samuel Fry has practised it for many years with great success. Mr. Vernon Heath and Warner have both, during the past year, given some popularity to the process by successfully applying and describing it. But none of the results that we have seen have been on such a large scale, and so entirely successful, as those of Mr. Harman. Here arc four portraits, each about 22 inches by 17 inches, with accompanying prints from the card negatives from which the enlargement is effected. The portraits are chiefly standing figures, and some of them with various accessories; but in none, and in no part of them, do we find unsatisfactory pictorial definition, every part of each figure being as well defined as in the small prints, showing that no appreciable loss has been suffered in enlargement. No. 61 is especially fine, the composition being good, the image soft, round, vigorous, and well defined. The tone will probably be considered a little black by some, but the effect is very engraving-like, and will recommend the use of resinized paper—the sample used in this instance being, we understand, that prepared by Francis and Co., after the formula of Mr. Cooper. The print (No. 84) from an enlarged stereoscopic negative, printed on albumenized paper, scarcely strikes us as so delicate and pleasing as the others. THE DISCOVERY OF THE METAL THALLIUM. Amongst the fruits already reaped from the valuable dis covery of Messrs. Kerchoff and Bunsen, in reference to spectrum analysis, are, as our readers already know, three new alkalinemetals-rubidium, csium, and thallium. 'The