WILLIAM HENRY FOX TALBOT (1800-1877) The Three Graces. Circa 1846. Salt print from a waxed paper negative, coated with wax varnish, the image measuring 5¾x4¾ inches (14.6x12 cm.).
Provenance From a descendant of Robert Murray, who is said to have supplied equipment and chemicals to William Henry Fox Talbot, Nicolaas Henneman, and other British photographers in the 1840s and 50s; to a California Collection
According to Larry Schaaf (cat. no. 5092), although attributed to Talbot, there is a possibility that the photographs of a statuette copy of "The Three Graces" by Antonio Canova (1757-1822) were taken by Nicolaas Henneman.
The evidence for this comes from a letter Henneman sent Talbot from his establishment in Reading in December 1846, in which he wrote about his attempts to photograph the sculpture (note his misspellings).
"I have been trying hard to day to get a good negative of the three graces by the new process but cant get any thing under 2 minutes 20 seconds with the Small camera, middle aperture, and the day fine for thiss time of year, so the Porportions you give mee can not be as right as I find them Slower than those I tried or we tried at Laycock."
There is a possibility that Henneman eventually succeeded to capture good results at Reading. Or, these photographs may be those Henneman referred to in the letter, taken jointly by him with Talbot.
The statuette of "The Three Graces" can be seen set up and ready to have its photograph taken in the right half of the panorama of Henneman's establishment in Reading. It's intriguing to note that the same photograph shows Henneman posed with his camera, possibly in the very act of taking a photograph. [The Talbot Catalogue Raisonné]
