Henry Peach Robinson

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Henry Peach Robinson (born July 9, 1830 in Linney near Ludlow , Shropshire , England , † February 21, 1901 in Royal Tunbridge Wells , ( Kent )) was an English photographer and photography theorist of the 19th century. He was a co-founder of the Brotherhood of the Linked Ring and, in addition to his numerous theoretical writings on photography, is best known for his combination photographs.

Photogravure Henry Peach Robinson

Life

Henry Peach Robinson was the first child of John Robinson and Eliza Robinson (nee Peach). His sister Clara was born in 1834. At the age of 13 he began training as a bookseller and printer, which he finished in 1849. For several years Robinson worked as a bookseller in various cities in England (Bromsgrove with Benjamin Maund, London with Whittaker & Company, Leamington with Joseph Glover). In 1859 he married Selina Grieves, with whom he had five children: Ralph Winwood, Maud, Ethel May and Leonard Lionel.

In two free years between school, training and work, Robinson self-taught drawing, painting and stone chiselling. Robinson also found his way into photography as an autodidact: with a subscription to the “Journal of the Photographic Society”, which he had from 1853, Robinson began his career as a photographer. From then on he worked as a studio photographer. During this time he also created a number of art photography images and theoretical writings.

After many successful years in which he had founded studios in Leamington, London and Tunbridge Wells, Robinson retired from the business in 1888 for health reasons, but was still active as a photographer. Henry Peach Robinson died on February 21, 1901 at the age of 70 as a result of a stroke. He is buried in Ben Hall Road Cemetery, Tunbridge Wells . He designed and carved the foundation stone for his grave.

Henry Peach Robinson

plant

theory

Henry Peach Robinson was not only one of the great photographers of his time, but also an important photography theorist. He is considered one of the most influential voices in 19th century photography. Robinson saw photography as an advancement in the fine arts. Therefore, in his writings, he referred to painterly principles that were also applicable to photography for him and tried to differentiate photography from science. It is not a true-to-life representation like science, but should not represent scientific facts, but ideal objects and motifs that are owed to the artist's imagination. In order to achieve art status, according to Robinson, one had to manipulate photography in order to improve the artistic quality of a photograph - only then would painterly images arise that mixed the ideal with reality. Through his numerous publications and his reputation for being one of the most important photography theorists of his time, Robinson was one of the protagonists of fine art photography in the 19th century. He also became known through his public criticism of Peter Henry Emerson , whose work "Naturalistic Photography for Students of the Art" appeared in 1889 and in which he in turn sharply attacked Robinson.

Pictorial Effect in Photography

Storm clearing off (1894)

Robinson's major work Pictorial Effect in Photography: being hints on composition and chiaroscuro for photographers (1869) is intended as a guide for photographers. The book includes thoughts on aesthetics, principles of art, and theories of "Picturesque," a concept that had been popular since the mid-18th century. Robinson's assumption that photography is a further development of the visual arts and can be learned just like painting becomes clear. He gives instructions on how to arrange the shape, light and shadow to create the perfect composition . The photographer proceeds from the laws of composition: unity, balance, equilibrium of light and shadow. Robinson's thesis is that the photographer too must be guided by the same rules that have guided painters, sculptors and architects for centuries. Robinson therefore chose works by painters of the 18th and 19th centuries as practical examples in support of his guidelines for good art photography . Century, including David Wilkie's Sir Walter Scott and his friends (1849) or William Turner's Norham Castle at sunrise (1840/45). Illustrations of successful perspectives and vice versa also negative examples complement the representations.

For his guidelines for successful group representations and portraits, Robinson also consults the writings of painters: Gérard de Lairesse (“Des… Gerhard de lairesse… great Mahler book: in which the Mahler art… is taught, explained by thieves and copper engravings, too with examples from the best works of art by the most famous old and new Mahler ... is confirmed ”, 1784) or Joshua Reynolds (“ Art Theoretical Discourses ”, 1769–1790) would be here u. a. to call.

He emphasizes the importance of the correct arrangement of light and shadow in several chapters on Chiaroscuro (Italian: "light-dark"). In his work, Robinson also treats the sky as the natural background of the landscape. This must be in harmony with the landscape. Robinson offers the readers very specific and practical information on pyramidal shapes as an aid to setting up groups in pictures or etc. v. a. for portraits. For example, he recommends that the person being portrayed should be positioned to his advantage (e.g. the photographer only has to photograph the beautiful side of the person) and should not have to wait after placing in order not to destroy the pose; or there is an explicit note that figures in pictures must be arranged and arranged by the photographer. This shows Robinson's desire to change and redesign nature according to the artist's inner vision to create painterly images. Even if he opposes the mere depiction of facts, the photographer should nevertheless orientate himself not only towards art but also towards nature in order to avoid an overly artificial character of the pictures.

Robinson's photographic recommendations were published as a series in the Photographic News in 1868 , and then appeared as a book in 1869. There were seven other editions of the book in the 19th century.

Photographs

Studio recordings

Robinson was a full-time professional studio photographer. In the course of his career he opened three studios: the first in Leamington in 1857. Here his family had to help out as an assistant at the beginning; but in 1858 the studio was able to be expanded. Robinson was working on a method to simplify the Collodion process at the time and published some pictures. In 1865 Robinson moved to London, where he initially did not have a studio for health reasons. It was not until 1866 that he opened a private studio in London, continued to work on exhibition pictures, but earned his living with vignetted and standing portraits in carte-de-visite format and other genre portraits. In the fall of 1867, Henry Peach Robinson opened a studio in Tunbridge Wells, which he ran from 1868 together with his partner Nelson King Cherrill . In 1871 the studio was expanded to become the "Great Hall Studio". In 1875 the partnership was dissolved and Robinson continued the studio alone.

Art photography

In addition to his studio recordings, Robinson also dealt with the production of art photographic images. At the beginning of his career (1850s) he mainly made landscape photographs of the area around Leamington. In the course of his career he tried his hand at seascapes, especially during his time with Nelson King Cherrill (1868–1875) ("A Seascape with Headland", 1885, "In Kilbrennan Sound" 1895, "Atlanta" 1896). Robinson was best known for his attempts to reproduce history painting photographically. Based on Pre-Raphaelite painting , these photographs are also called "Pre-Raphaelite photographs". It depicts contemplative village scenes ( A Cottage Home (1859), Bringing Home The May (1862), When the Day's Work is Done (1877) or “Primrose Time” (1891)), re-enactments of selected passages from prose and poetry ( The Lady of Shalott (1860/61) is based on the poem of the same name by Alfred Tennyson ) or on paintings (e.g. John Everett Millais Ophelia (1851)). These are mainly composition photographs.

Henry Peach Robinson had his greatest successes with compositional printing, a printing technique that allowed him to combine many individual scenes into an overall scene. He probably learned this technique from Oscar Gustave Rejlander , whom he met in 1857 and who had become famous with his composition The Two Ways of Life (1857). This enables artists to depict many different objects equally sharp and in the correct focus.

Fading Away (1856)

Robinson's Fading Away (1858)

The composition photograph "Fading Away" is Robinson's most famous work. The picture was composed of five negatives on a piece of paper. The people were photographed individually and then put together by Robinson to form a picture. The work is based on contemporary paintings by Augustus Egg, Richard Redgrave and Abraham Salomon and is based on a poem by Percy Bysshe Shelley . The photograph shows a girl suffering from tuberculosis on her death bed, surrounded by her family. The current topic at the time hit the nerve of the times. The picture was controversial because the subject was provocative and was found by many of Robinson's colleagues to be offensive and inappropriate for a photograph. However, admirers found the work a realistic documentation of the social circumstances, despite the theatrical nature of the photography. The picture also sparked a debate about the medium of photography, which was viewed as realistic but could also manipulate reality. In 1858 it was exhibited at the Crystal Palace in London .

Memberships

Henry Peach Robinson became a member of the "Photographic Exchange Club" in 1855 and then in 1857 of the " Photographic Society of London ". He was also from 1862 a member of the committee for the second "Great International Exhibition" at Crystal Palace in London . In 1866, together with Thomas Richard Williams (1824–1871), he founded the “Solar Club”, an elite “dining club” for those interested in photography and the visual arts, which met once a month at the Café Royal in London. The members called themselves the "Brothers Ray".

In 1887, Henry Peach Robinson and his son Ralph Winwood were founding members of the Amateur Photographic Association in Tunbridge Wells. In 1891 Robinson broke with the "Photographic Society" (of which he was vice-president at the time) and became a co-founder of the " Brotherhood of the Linked Ring ", which from 1893 organized the "Photographic Salon", an exhibition of photographic art, every year.

Despite his break with the Royal Photographic Society of Great Britain, Henry Peach Robinson was elected honorary member in 1900.

Quotes

"Beauty, picturesqueness and all loveliness are the food of art."

- Margaret F. Harker: Henry Peach Robinson: Master of photographic Art. Basil Blackwell , Oxford / New York, 1988: p. 1.

"My aim is to induce photographers to think for themselves as artists and to learn to express their artistic thoughts in the grammar of art. ... The materials used by photographers differ only in degree from those employed by the painter and sculptor. "

- Margaret F. Harker: Henry Peach Robninson: The Grammar of Art. In: Mike Weaver (Ed.): British Photography in the Nineteenth Century: The Fine Art Tradition. Oxford University , New York a. a., 1989, p. 133.

"It must be remembered that nature is not all alike equally beautiful, but it is the artist's part to represent it in the most beautiful manner possible."

- Henry Peach Robinson: Pictorial Effect in Photography: Being Hints on Composition and Chiaroscuro for Photographers. Piper & Carter, London, 1869, p. 60.

“The photographer must not let his invention tempt him to represent, by any trick, any scene that does not occur in nature; if he does, he does violence to his art, because it is known that his finisehd result represents some object or thing that has existed for a space of time before his camera. But any 'dodge, trick, or conjuration' of any kind is open to the photographer's use, so that it belongs to his art, and is not false to nature. "

- Henry Peach Robinson: Pictorial Effect in Photography: Being Hints on Composition and Chiaroscuro for Photographers. Piber & Carter, London , 1869, p. 78.

"The more faithful a work is to nature, the further it is from art [...] no amount of scientific truth will in itself make a picture ... The truth that is wanted is artistic truth - quite a different thing."

- John Tibbetts: The Real Thing: Arguments Between Art and Science in the Work of PH Emerson and HP Robinson. In: Journal of American Culture 4/1981, p. 162.

"Some landscape and angles are picturesque and some are not; if they are not, then it is the artist's business to 'correct the unpicturesque'. One either accepts these principles or one does not. "

- John Tibbetts: The Real Thing: Arguments Between Art and Science in the Work of PH Emerson and HP Robinson. In: Journal of American Culture Issue 4/1981, pp. 165f.

Fonts

  • 1869: Pictorial Effect In Photography: Being Hints On Composition And Chiaroscuro For Photographers. London: Piper & Carter
  • 1886: The painterly effect in photography as a guide to the composition and treatment of light in photographs. Hall aS: Almost.
  • Robinson, Henry Peach; Captain W. de W. Abney 1881: The Art And Practice Of Silver Printing. London: Piper & Carter. The Art and Practice of Silver Printing. The American edition. Publisher E. & HT Anthony & Co., New York, 1881
  • 1884: Picture Making by Photography. London: Piper & Carter.
  • 1885: The Photographic Studio and What to Do in It. London: Piper & Carter. /
  • 1886: The glass house and what happens in it. Düsseldorf: Liesegang. ( DNB 1000553590 )
  • 1888: Letters on Landscape Photography. Publisher: Scovill manufacturing company. New York, 1888
  • 1890: Photography as a Business. Bedford: Percy Lund & Company.
  • 1895: Art Photography in Short Chapters, In: The Amateur Photographer Library (1895), H. 4. Hazell, Watson & Viney.
  • 1896: The Elements of a Pictorial Photograph . Publisher: Percy Lund & Co., Ltd., London 1906
  • Publications by Henry Peach Robinson on the Internet Archive - online

literature

Foreign language

  • Brian Coe: George Eastman and the Early Photographers . London: Priory Press, 1973
  • Richard Dorment: The Mother of photography Julia Margaret Cameron was an unlikely pioneer, but her work still has the power to amaze . In: The Daily Telegraph , Jan. 29, 2003, p. 22.
  • Ellen Handy: Pictorial Beauties, Natural Truths, Photographics Practices . In: Ellen Handy (Ed.): Pictorial Effect. Naturalistic Vision: The Photographs and theories of Henry Peach Robinson and Peter Henry Emerson . The Chrysler Museum, Norfolk, 1994.
  • Margaret F. Harker: Henry Peach Robinson: Master of photographic Art . 1830-1901. Basil Blackwell, Oxford, New York, 1988.
  • Margaret F. Harker: Henry Peach Robinson: The Grammar of Art . In: Mike Weaver (Ed.): British Photography in the Nineteenth Century: The fine Art Tradition . Oxford University, Cambridge, New York, Port Chester, Melbourne, Sydney, 1989, pp. 133-140.
  • Jannie Uhre Mogensen: Fading into Innocence: Death, Sexuality and Moral Restoration in Henry Peach Robinson's Fading Away . In: Victorian Review . An Interdisciplinary Journal of Victorian Studies, Volume 32, (2006) H. 1, pp. 1-17.
  • Shelley Rice: Parallel Universes . In: Ellen Handy (Ed.): Pictorial Effect. Naturalistic Vision: The Photographs and theories of Henry Peach Robinson and Peter Henry Emerson . The Chrysler Museum, Norfolk, 1994, pp. 59-73.
  • Henry Peach Robinson: Pictorial Effects in Photography: Being Hints on Composition and Chiaroscuro for Photographers . Piper & Carter, London, 1869.
  • Laura Saltz: Realism, Photography, and Nineteenth-Century Fiction . In: Studies in Novel , Volume 41, No. 3, 2009, pp. 499-502.
  • John Tibbetts: The Real Thing: Arguments Between Art and Science n the Work of PH Emerson and HP Robinson . In: Journal of American Culture , Volume 4 (1981), H. oA, 1981, pp. 149-172.

Web links

Commons : Henry Peach Robinson  - Collection of Pictures, Videos and Audio Files
Wikisource: Journals (photography)  - sources and full texts

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Robinson, Henry Peach (1830-1901). Encyclopedia Universalis, accessed July 23, 2011 (French).
  2. ^ HP Robinson. PSS Exehitors, accessed July 23, 2011 .
  3. ^ Robert Leggat, 1999: Robinson, Henry Peach. Retrieved July 23, 2011 .
  4. ^ John Tibbetts: The Real Thing: Arguments Between Art and Science in the Work of PH Emerson and HP Robinson . In: Journal of American Culture 4/1981, No. oA, 1981, p. 151.
  5. ^ Henry Peach Robinson's Works of Art. MS Museum Syndicate, accessed July 23, 2011 .
  6. When the Day's Work is Done, 1877. (No longer available online.) Harvard Art Museums, formerly the original ; accessed on July 13, 2011 .  ( Page no longer available , search in web archivesInfo: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / www.harvardartmuseums.org  
  7. ^ Henry Peach Robinson. (No longer available online.) The J. Paul Getty Museum, archived from the original on Aug. 24, 2007 ; accessed on July 13, 2011 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.getty.edu
  8. ^ Henry Peach Robinson: Pictorial Effect in Photography: Being Hints on Composition and Chiaroscuro for Photographers. Piper & Carter, London, 1869.
  9. ^ Ulrich Pohlmann: Pre-Raphaelite Photography. In: Ulrich Pohlmann, Johann Georg Prinz von Hohenzollern (Ed.): A new art? Another nature! Photography and painting in the 19th century. Kunsthalle der Hypo-Kulturstiftung, Munich, 2004, p. 272.
  10. ^ Fading Away (Robinson, Henry-Peach). National Media Museum, accessed July 23, 2011 .
  11. ^ Fading Away. (No longer available online.) Artful Ambitions / An Art of Its Own, archived from the original on May 11, 2008 ; accessed on July 23, 2011 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.geh.org
  12. ^ Henry Peach Robinson. History of Fotografics, accessed July 13, 2011 .