Henry Peach Robinson (9 July 1830,

Ludlow Ludlow ( ) is a market town and civil parish in Shropshire (district), Shropshire, England. It is located south of Shrewsbury and north of Hereford, on the A49 road (Great Britain), A49 road which bypasses the town. The town is near the conf ...

Shropshire Shropshire (; abbreviated SalopAlso used officially as the name of the county from 1974–1980. The demonym for inhabitants of the county "Salopian" derives from this name.) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the West M ...

– 21 February 1901,

Royal Tunbridge Wells Royal Tunbridge Wells (formerly, until 1909, and still commonly Tunbridge Wells) is a town in Kent, England, southeast of Central London. It lies close to the border with East Sussex on the northern edge of the Weald, High Weald, whose sand ...

Kent Kent is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Essex across the Thames Estuary to the north, the Strait of Dover to the south-east, East Sussex to the south-west, Surrey to the west, and Gr ...

) was an English

pictorialist Pictorialism is an international style and aesthetic movement that dominated photography during the later 19th and early 20th centuries. There is no standard definition of the term, but in general it refers to a style in which the photographer ha ...

photographer A photographer (the Greek φῶς (''phos''), meaning "light", and γραφή (''graphê''), meaning "drawing, writing", together meaning "drawing with light") is a person who uses a camera to make photographs. Duties and types of photograp ...

best known for his pioneering combination printing, an early example of

photomontage Photomontage is the process and the result of making a composite photograph by cutting, gluing, rearranging and overlapping two or more photographs into a new image. Sometimes the resulting composite image is photographed so that the final imag ...

. He engaged in contemporary debates in the photographic press and associations about the legitimacy of 'art photography' and in particular the combining of separate images into one.

Life

Robinson was the oldest of four children of John Robinson, a Ludlow schoolmaster, and his wife Eliza. He was educated at Horatio Russell's academy in Ludlow until he was thirteen. He left the academy to take up a year's drawing tuition with Richard Penwarne before being apprenticed to bookseller and printer, Richard Jones. While continuing to study art, his initial career was in bookselling. In 1850 he worked for

Bromsgrove Bromsgrove is a town in Worcestershire, England, about north-east of Worcester and south-west of Birmingham city centre. It had a population of 34,755 in at the 2021 census. It gives its name to the wider Bromsgrove District, of which it is ...

bookseller Benjamin Maund, then in 1851 for the London-based Whittaker & Co. In 1852 he exhibited an oil painting, ''On the Teme Near Ludlow'', at the

Royal Academy The Royal Academy of Arts (RA) is an art institution based in Burlington House in Piccadilly London, England. Founded in 1768, it has a unique position as an independent, privately funded institution led by eminent artists and architects. Its ...

. This year also marked the beginning of his photographic work. Five years later, following a meeting with the photographer Hugh Welch Diamond, he decided to devote himself to that medium. He opened his first studio in 1855 in

Leamington Spa Royal Leamington Spa, commonly known as Leamington Spa or simply LeamingtonEven more colloquially, also referred to as Lem or Leam (). (), is a spa town and civil parish in Warwickshire, England. Originally a small village called Leamington Pri ...

to sell portraits. In 1856, with Oscar Rejlander, he was a founding member of the Birmingham Photographic Society. In 1859, he married Selina Grieves, daughter of a Ludlow chemist, John Edward Grieves. His son, Ralph Winwood Robinson, was also a photographer. In 1864, at the age of 34, Robinson was forced to give up his studio due to ill-health from exposure to toxic photographic chemicals. Photography historian Gernsheim has shown that thereafter Robinson preferred the easier 'scissors and paste-pot' method of making his combination prints, rather than the more exacting darkroom method employed by Rejlander. Relocating to London, Robinson kept up his involvement with the theoretical side of photography, writing the influential essay ''Pictorial Effect in Photography'' (1869) and ''Being Hints on Composition and

Chiaroscuro In art, chiaroscuro ( , ; ) is the use of strong contrasts between light and dark, usually bold contrasts affecting a whole composition. It is also a technical term used by artists and art historians for the use of contrasts of light to ach ...

for Photographers'', (1868). Around this time his health had improved sufficiently to open a new studio in

Tunbridge Wells Royal Tunbridge Wells (formerly, until 1909, and still commonly Tunbridge Wells) is a town in Kent, England, southeast of Central London. It lies close to the border with East Sussex on the northern edge of the High Weald, whose sandstone ...

with Nelson King Cherrill, and in 1870 he became vice-president of the

Royal Photographic Society The Royal Photographic Society of Great Britain, commonly known as the Royal Photographic Society (RPS), is the world's oldest photographic society having been in continuous existence since 1853. It was founded in London, England, in 1853 as th ...

. He advocated strongly for photography to be regarded as an art form. The partnership with Cherrill dissolved in 1875. Robinson continued the business until his retirement in 1888 when his son, Ralph Winwood Robinson, took over the studio business. Following internal disputes within the Photographic Society, he resigned in 1891 to become one of the early members of the rival Linked Ring society, in which he was active until 1897, when he was also elected an honorary member of the Royal Photographic Society. Robinson was an early supporter of the Photographic Convention of the United Kingdom and took part in this institution's long running debates about photography as an art form. He was invited to serve as the President of the PCUK in 1891 but, as he described later, 'I felt compelled to decline, knowing that I could not carry out the duties as they should be carried out, having a defect of voice which would not allow me to read my own address'. He was subsequently persuaded to serve as President in 1896, when his presidential speeches were read out by a colleague. He died aged 70 and was buried in Tunbridge Wells.

Works

Robinson was one of the most prominent art photographers of his day. His third and the most famous composite picture, "Fading Away" (1858), was both popular and fashionably morbid. He was a follower of the pre-Raphaelites and was influenced by the aesthetic views of

John Ruskin John Ruskin (8 February 1819 20 January 1900) was an English polymath a writer, lecturer, art historian, art critic, draughtsman and philanthropist of the Victorian era. He wrote on subjects as varied as art, architecture, Critique of politic ...

. In his Pre-Raphaelite phase he attempted to realize moments of timeless significance in a "mediaeval" setting, anticipating the work of

Julia Margaret Cameron Julia Margaret Cameron (; 11 June 1815 – 26 January 1879) was an English photographer who is considered one of the most important portraitists of the 19th century. She is known for her Soft focus, soft-focus close-ups of famous Victorian era, ...

, Burne-Jones and the Symbolists. According to his letters, he was influenced by the

paintings Painting is a visual art, which is characterized by the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a solid surface (called "matrix" or " support"). The medium is commonly applied to the base with a brush. Other implements, ...

J. M. W. Turner Joseph Mallord William Turner (23 April 177519 December 1851), known in his time as William Turner, was an English Romantic painter, printmaker and watercolourist. He is known for his expressive colouring, imaginative landscapes and turbu ...

. He defended composite photography, asserting that the creation of combination photographs was as demanding of the photographer as paintings were of the artist. Robinson compared the making of'' Fading Away'' with Zeuxis' legendary combining of the best features of five young ladies from Crotona to produce his picture of Helena.

Collections

Robinson's work is held in the permanent collections of several institutions, including the Johnson Museum of Art, the

Clark Art Institute The Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, commonly referred to as the Clark, is an art museum and research institution located in Williamstown, Massachusetts, Williamstown, Massachusetts, United States. Its collection consists of European ...

, the

Seattle Art Museum The Seattle Art Museum (commonly known as SAM) is an art museum located in Seattle, Washington (state), Washington, United States. The museum operates three major facilities: its main museum in downtown Seattle; the Seattle Asian Art Museum in ...

, the

Saint Louis Art Museum The Saint Louis Art Museum (SLAM) is an art museum located in St. Louis, Missouri, United States. With paintings, sculptures, cultural objects, and ancient masterpieces from around the world, its three-story building stands in Forest Park in ...

, the

George Eastman Museum The George Eastman Museum, also referred to as George Eastman House and the International Museum of Photography and Film, is a photography museum in Rochester, New York. Opened to the public in 1949, is the oldest museum dedicated to photography ...

, the

Worcester Art Museum The Worcester Art Museum houses over 38,000 works of art dating from antiquity to the present day and representing cultures from all over the world. The museum opened in 1898 in Worcester, Massachusetts. Its holdings include Roman mosaics, Europe ...

, the SFMOMA, the

University of Michigan Museum of Art The University of Michigan Museum of Art (UMMA) is one of the largest university art museums in the United States, located in Ann Arbor, Michigan, with . Built as a war memorial in 1909 for the university's fallen alumni from the Civil War, Alu ...

, the LACMA, the

Harvard Art Museums The Harvard Art Museums are part of Harvard University and comprise three museums: the Fogg Museum (established in 1895), the Busch-Reisinger Museum (established in 1903), and the Arthur M. Sackler Museum (established in 1985), and four research ...

, the

Princeton University Art Museum The Princeton University Art Museum (PUAM) is the Princeton University gallery of art, located in Princeton, New Jersey. With a collecting history that began in 1755, the museum was formally established in 1882, and now houses over 117,000 work ...

, the

Metropolitan Museum of Art The Metropolitan Museum of Art, colloquially referred to as the Met, is an Encyclopedic museum, encyclopedic art museum in New York City. By floor area, it is the List of largest museums, third-largest museum in the world and the List of larg ...

, the

J. Paul Getty Museum The J. Paul Getty Museum, commonly referred to as the Getty, is an art museum in Los Angeles, California, United States, housed on two campuses: the Getty Center and Getty Villa. It is operated by the J. Paul Getty Trust, the world's wealthies ...

, and the

National Gallery of Victoria The National Gallery of Victoria, popularly known as the NGV, is an art museum in Melbourne, Victoria (state), Victoria, Australia. Founded in 1861, it is Australia's oldest and list of most visited art museums in the world, most visited art mu ...

Publications

Robinson was author of a number of texts in which he promoted the photography as an art form, his books being widely used photographic reference material in the late 19th century. *Robinson, H.P. ''Pictorial Effect in Photography: Being Hints On Composition And Chiaroscuro For Photographers''. London: Piper & Carter, 1869. *Robinson, H.P. and

William de Wiveleslie Abney Sir William de Wiveleslie Abney (24 July 1843 – 3 December 1920) was an English astronomer, chemist, and photographer. Life and career Abney was born in Derby, England, the son of Rev. Edward Henry Abney (1811–1892), vicar of St Alkm ...

. ''The Art And Practice of Silver Printing''. NY: E. & H.T. Anthony & Co., 1881. *Robinson, H.P. ''Picture-Making By Photography''. London: Hazell, Watson, & Viney, 1889. *Robinson, H.P. ''Art photography in short chapters'' London: Hazell Watson & Viney. 1890 *Robinson, H.P. ''Photography as a business.'' Bradford

ng. Ng, ng, or NG may refer to: * Ng (name) (吳黄伍), (吳 being the most common), a surname of Chinese origin Arts and entertainment * N-Gage (device), a handheld gaming system * Naked Giants, Seattle rock band * '' Spirit Hunter: NG'', a vide ...

Percy Lund. 1890 *Robinson, H.P. ''The Studio And What To Do in It''. London: Piper & Carter, 1891. *Robinson, H.P. ''The elements of a pictorial photograph.'' Bradford : Percy Lund & Co. 1896. *Robinson, H.P. ''Catalogue of pictorial photographs.'' Ralph W. Robinson. Redhill, Surrey. 1901

Books about Henry Peach Robinson

* * Handy, Ellen (2004) "Robinson, Henry Peach (1830–1901)", ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'', Oxford University Press, 200
accessed 17 Dec 2007
* * * *

References

External links

- From

George Eastman House The George Eastman Museum, also referred to as George Eastman House and the International Museum of Photography and Film, is a photography museum in Rochester, New York. Opened to the public in 1949, is the oldest museum dedicated to photography ...

Henry Peach Robinson
at the

(NGV), Melbourne, Australia
Henry Peach Robinson
- From MuseumSyndicate
Henry Peach Robinson
- From

Henry Peach Robinson (1830–1901)
- From

British Council The British Council is a British organisation specialising in international cultural and educational opportunities. It works in over 100 countries: promoting a wider knowledge of the United Kingdom and the English language (and the Welsh lang ...

and M.I. Rudomino All-Russia State Library for Foreign Literature
Henry Peach Robinson 1830-1901
- From PSS (Photographic Society of Scotland) Exhibitors

- From "A History of Photography from its beginnings till the 1920s" by Robert Leggat * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Robinson, Henry Peach 1830 births 1901 deaths 19th-century English male artists 19th-century English photographers People from Ludlow Photographers from Shropshire Pioneers of photography