Image scanned from a transparency and color-corrected by Pat Cagney.

When the Day's Work is Done

Artist Henry Peach Robinson (English, 1830-1901)

CultureEnglish

Date1877

MediumPhotogravures

DimensionsOverall, Support: 16 x 12 in. (40.6 x 30.5 cm)
Overall, Image: 5 7/8 x 7 1/8 in. (14.9 x 18.1 cm)

InscribedOn photogravures, at LL, below image: "H. P. Robinson"

PortfolioSun Artists, January 1890

Credit LineMuseum purchase, in memory of Alice R. and Sol B. Frank

Object number93.19.5

Not on view

DescriptionSUN ARTISTS was a 19th-century British journal devoted to photography. This January 1890 issue Number 2 contains text by Andrew Pringle and four photogravures by Henry Peach Robinson. H. P. Robinson was the leading proponent of Pictorial Effect. This was a style of photography that emulated painting by asembling multiple negatives to create a picture. The four photogravures by Robinson are titled CAROLLING, A MERRY TALE, DAWN AND SUNSET, and WHEN THE DAY'S WORK IS DONE.

Label TextHenry Peach Robinson British, 1830–1901 top Dawn and Sunset, 1885 Photogravure (etching made from photographic negative), printed in Sun Artists (January 1890) bottom When the Day’s Work is Done, 1877 Photogravure (etching made from photographic negative), printed in Sun Artists (January 1890) These scenes combine multiple, separate instants to dramatize the passage of time. To make When the Day’s Work is Done, photographer Henry Peach Robinson combined three pairs of negatives, each shot at different moments, on individual sheets of glass. He then exposed each plate on a single sheet of paper to produce the final montage. The result is a dreamy scene with an unusual tonal range and an otherworldly arrangement of space (look at how the baskets in the right foreground seem to hover). Museum purchase, in memory of Alice R. and Sol B. Frank 93.19.5, 93.19.5c Exhibition History"Photographs Take Time: Pictures from the Chrysler Collection," Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk, VA, April 6 - August 26, 2018.