Curatorial description (17 December 2015)
Henry Peach Robinson developed a strong interest in drawing and painting as a child, but spent the early part of his adult life working for booksellers and printers. A strong advocate for the recognition of photography as an art form, he articulated this position in publications such as "Pictorial Effect in Photography" (1869) and "The Elements of a Pictorial Photograph" (1896). This photograph employs many of Robinson's "prescriptions" for composing a pictorial photograph: the massing of "the deepest dark" brought into immediate contact with the highest light, to create "the glamour and witchery of perfect chiaroscuro," repeated forms and repeated lights (the voluminous fabric of the dress and curtains, the ornate chairs, the shafts of sunlight on the woman's face, hands, and the room's furnishings, the patches of light on the carpet and surrounding the pair of slippers awaiting their owner's arrival), and strong diagonals.
