Winter Trees Reflected in a Pond

1841–42

William Henry Fox Talbot

(British, 1800–1877)

Culture

England, 19th century

Medium

salted paper print from calotype negative

Measurements

Image: 16.4 x 19.1 cm (6 7/16 x 7 1/2 in.); Paper: 19.8 x 24.8 cm (7 13/16 x 9 3/4 in.); Matted: 40.6 x 50.8 cm (16 x 20 in.)

Credit Line

Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund 2006.4

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Location

Not on view

Did You Know?

Talbot made this image just a few years after he invented the photograph on paper.

Description

Talbot captured tree branches flawlessly mirrored on the glassy surface of the pond at his family seat, the 13th-century Lacock Abbey in Wiltshire. A longer exposure, or a lusher season, would have risked a blurred image. The result was a radically abstract composition for its time—a starkly beautiful landscape, as expressive and personal as any painting.