Object number2003.8
A Happy Dream
Date1862-1863
Artist
Ross and Thomson
(Scottish, active 1848 - 1864)
Artist
James Ross
(Scottish, c. 1814–1878)
Artist
John Thomson
(Scottish, c. 1808–1881)
MediumAlbumen print
DimensionsImage: 7 7/8 x 6 in. (20 x 15.24 cm)
Mount: 12 3/4 x 10 1/2 in. (32.39 x 26.67 cm)
Sheet: 12 3/4 x 10 1/2 in. (32.39 x 26.67 cm)
Mount: 12 3/4 x 10 1/2 in. (32.39 x 26.67 cm)
Sheet: 12 3/4 x 10 1/2 in. (32.39 x 26.67 cm)
Credit LinePurchase, Horace W. Goldsmith Foundation Fund
On View
Not on viewPeriod18th c
Classification(s)
InscribedInscribed (recto, on mount at bottom center, in pencil): A Happy Dream; (verso, at LLC, in pencil): 300437.0527; (ULC, in pencil): JT082
Vassar Exhibitions
Exhibition HistoryHistories of Photography, Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center, Vassar College, Poughkeepsie, NY, July 5 - September 21, 2003; Shape of Light: Defining Photographs from the Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center, Vassar College, Poughkeepsie, NY, September 20 - December 15, 2019DescriptionIn the mid-nineteenth century, British art photographers imitated the work of academic painters through several methods: props, stock poses, painted backdrops, multiple exposures, and the manual reworking of both negative and print. All of these techniques are represented in this striking collabor- ative image. Early Edinburgh partners Ross and Thomson produced both daguerreotypes and calotypes (salted-paper prints from paper negatives), and were experimenting with albumen-based emulsions as early as 1849. James Ross operated a painting studio and might have painted the backdrop seen here, which, in a somewhat altered state, appears in genre-scene photo- graphs sold under his name in 1863. This fine example of allegorical staging and combination printing was shown at the 1863 exposition of the London Photographic Society.
Object information is a work in progress and may be updated as new research findings emerge.
To help improve this record, please email
loebcollections@vassar.edu
