THE PENCIL OF NATURE
photographs
more
or,
photo-
pasted-in
accurately,
I?
graphs with an accompanying text. Talbot writes with
charming decorum of the
the
stilted style typical
of
that period.
Here, in his historical sketch recalling the invention of the
new art, Talbot despairs at
the frailty of his drawings
made from the images in the camera obscura and camera lucida. But why? Gentlemen travellers of the time, as well as distinguished artists,
did not use such instruments only
for utilitarian purposes - to save time or to guarantee a
great degree of accuracy.
One suspects that the more pro-
found reasons had to do with the fascination for toys, and more particularly for that irresistible little image in the prism or registered on the ground glass or paper. There, transformed, all the forms and colours in view were coalesced in reduction, and richer to the point of looking more like art than nature. Yet nature it unquestionably
was, and
all
the
more provocative
miniature, snatched
from
its
A
for that.
sweet
larger context; a tiny
win-
the world. Talbot called such images 'fairy pictures', 'All looked beautiful in the prism', and he sickened of those insipid little drawings which he, an
dow on
amateur delicate
artist,
managed
THE PENCIL OF NATURE
Sli )ohn Moffat: Photograph taken by artificial light In 1865 of David Brewster (left) and Fox Talbot. Wet collodion.
Introductory
Remarks
The little work now presented pretending he has invented it.
It is
true that he docs
it
very
badly and the paper fritters away ahiiost immediately owing to the chemical preparation he employs. But all that will not prevent his asserting he was the Inventor
of It if Hy does not take some means to prevent it. The people here have adopted the name of Talbotypc
and think
it
only a foolish modesty [not?] to do so
universally. This has been often suggested in
England
by various people, and it would seem that this is the precise moment in which it ought to be adopted as a iieii' aera is about to commence. I wish therefore it should be adopted at once in England as it is already here. Kalotype it is objected ne veut rien dire a ccuz quie nc
comprerment pas
le
attempt to publish a executed by the
which provoked that flash of which led Fox Talbot to tlic invention of the first
particular situation
insight
negative-positive photographic process,
is
corapellingly
out in his book, The Pencil ofNaliire, wluch appeared in 1844 and was the first of its kind available for purchase by the general public. This publication, its title set
so
1
revealing,
Ucock
had a
text
Papers. Sec Bayard, p. 5°.
illustrated
with pasted-in
to the Public
is
the
first
of plates or pictures wholly
new art of Photogenic Drawing,
;
even by name, date, a
its
discovery being
still
of very recent
few words may be looked for of general
explanation. It
may suffice, then, to say, that the plates of this work
have been obtained by the mere action of Light upon sensitive paper. They have been formed or depicted by optical and chemical means alone, and without the aid
Grec'
series
without any aid whatever from the artist's pencil. The term 'Photography' is now so well known, that an explanation of it is perhaps superfluous yet, as some persons may stiU be unacqiuinted with the art,
is
The
from those magically
to extract
images he saw:
of any one acquainted with the
art
of drawing.
needless, therefore, to say that they differ in
It
all
from
and as widely as possible, in their origin, of the ordinary kind, which owe their existence to the united skill of the Artist and the Engraver. They are impressed by Nature's hand and what
respects,
plates
;
they want as yet of delicacy and finish of execution arises chiefly from our want of sufficient knowledge
of her laws.
When we have learnt
more, by experience,
respecting the formation of such pictiures, they will doubtless be brought much nearer to perfection; and