Henry Peach Robinson

Photographer

• Born: July 9, 1830
• Place of Birth: Ludlow, Shropshire, England
• Died: February 21, 1901
• Place of Death: Tunbridge Wells, Kent, England

Significance: British photographer Henry Peach Robinson was one of the first photographers who advocated for photography to be considered an art form rather than a method of scientific documentation. He focused on the beauty and composition of the photograph instead of trying to portray a scene or person accurately. Many of his works looked like paintings and had what he called a pictorial effect. He was known for making composite images and staging his scenes.

Background

Henry Peach Robinson was born on July 9, 1830, in Ludlow, Shropshire, England. His father, John, was a schoolmaster at the National School of the Church of England. His mother was Eliza Robinson.

Robinson showed an interest in art at a young age, but he received no formal art schooling. His father did not believe that he could make a living as an artist. Therefore, Robinson had to teach himself to paint and draw. From age fourteen to about twenty-six, the young man worked at booksellers and printers in both Ludlow and London, England.

Robinson did find some success with his art. In 1852, he had one of his paintings exhibited at the Royal Academy of the Arts in London. It was around this time that Robinson was first introduced to photography. The medium was still very new, but the young artist became fascinated. He met Hugh Welch Diamond, a psychiatrist and photographer, and following a conversation with the doctor, Robinson became committed to learning about photography. He used instructions from Diamond printed in Journal of the Photographic Society to learn the art of photography. Robinson then began to experiment with various photographic processes. In 1857, he decided to leave his job as a bookseller and open his own photography studio, specializing in portraits.

Life's Work

Robinson befriended Oscar Gustave Rejlander, a pioneering photographer who combined multiple images to create a single print. Although Rejlander was one of the first to utilize this process, Robinson would later become famous for making so-called composite images. He would combine different pieces of various photographs to create his final work. This gave Robinson more control over the final image.

This technique generated much dispute. During the nineteenth century, many people viewed photography as separate from art. It often was considered a form of scientific documentation, showing the reality of a scene or subject in ways that paintings and drawings could not.

Robinson, who was a painter first, believed that photography could be much more than that. He wanted to use the medium to create images that told a story. Robinson often turned to literature and other art forms for inspiration for his work. One of his first known works was Juliet with the Poison Bottle (1857), which was inspired by William Shakespeare's play Romeo and Juliet. Like many of his other works, this image was a composite, combining various negatives to produce the final picture. Most of his work was staged in his studio, where he made sets and props as the background for the scenes in his photos. Robinson also hired people to serve as models in his photographs. This was more in keeping with the practices of painters and sculptors, while most photographers of the time prefered capturing people, scenes, and objects as they existed naturally.

One of Robinson's most famous works was the photograph Fading Away (1858). Robinson composed the image from five negatives. It depicted a young woman "dying" of consumption (tuberculosis) while surrounded by her family. Although the image was a fictional depiction of death, it created much controversy. Robinson was not only criticized for staging the scene and manipulating the image but also harshly judged for the subject matter. Many people thought that the death of a young person was not an appropriate topic for the medium of photography.

Despite this, Robinson had some high-ranking supporters. Queen Victoria's husband, Prince Albert, was extremely moved by Robinson's photograph. Albert bought a copy of the print and made an order to purchase all of Robinson's subsequent composites.

Another of Robinson's most famous images was The Lady of Shalott (1860–1861). Inspired by the poem of the same name by Alfred, Lord Tennyson, which tells the story of a "cursed" lady who could never look toward Camelot, the photograph depicts a young woman lying in a boat, floating down the river. While the image was extremely popular, Robinson later said that it was "ghastly" of him to try to depict this subject using "our realistic art."

At age thirty-four, Robinson had to close his studio after his health declined. The chemicals to which he was regularly exposed while making his composites led to his poor health. Still, Robinson did not allow this to stop him from participating in photography. In 1869, he published Pictorial Effect in Photography, Being Hints on Composition and Chiaroscuro for Photographers. In the 1870s, Robinson began working with another photographer, Nelson King Cherrill, and the two produced images of the seaside and landscapes. In 1884, Robinson released another book, Picture-Making by Photography. About a decade later, Robinson officially broke away from the Photographic Society to which he had belonged many years. In 1892, he became a cofounder of the Linked Ring, a society of photographers who did not feel as though they were well represented in the more traditional Photographic Society.

Robinson died at the age of seventy in Tunbridge Wells, Kent, England, on February 21, 1901.

Impact

Debate about whether images should be altered remains an issue in modern photography. Robinson was one of the first people to engage in altering and compositing photographs, making him a pioneer in the art and in the controversy surrounding altered images. In the twenty-first century, people still study his work, and museums still exhibit his photographs.

Personal Life

Robinson was married, but little is known about the marriage. According to the magazine Better Photography, it is said that his wife recalled being told that photography would always come first in Robinson's life.

Bibliography

Evemy, Benjamin Blake. "Never Fading Away: The Pioneering Photography of Henry Peach Robinson." Mutual Art, 14 April 2023, www.mutualart.com/Article/Never-Fading-Away--The-Pioneering-Photog/797E03035957E058. Accessed 4 Oct. 2024.

Gernsheim, Helmut. Creative Photography: Aesthetic Trends, 1839–1960. Dover, 1962, pp. 79–80.

Hannavy, John, editor. "Robinson, Henry Peach (1830–1901)." Encyclopedia of Nineteenth-Century Photography. Vol. 1, Routledge, 2008, pp. 1202–3.

"Henry Peach Robinson." J. Paul Getty Museum, www.getty.edu/art/collection/artists/1936/henry-peach-robinson-british-1830-1901/. Accessed 4 Oct. 2024.

"Henry Peach Robinson: Victorian Photographer." Harry Ransom Center, 13 Sept. 2001, www.hrc.utexas.edu/press/releases/2001/henry-peach-robinson.html. Accessed 4 Oct. 2024.

Kelsey, Robin. Photography and the Art of Chance. Belknap Press, 2015, pp. 59–61.