Photogenic drawing

Photogenic drawings were invented by William Henry Fox Talbot (1800-1877), a gentleman scientist whose interests included optics, chemistry, botany and art. Talbot had experimented with contact printing from as early as 1834, but it was not until Arago's announcement of Daguerre's discovery that he made public his results. Just as Talbot had picked up where Thomas Wegwood (1771-1805) had left off some thirty years earlier, so Sir John Herschel (1792-1871) continued the work of Talbot, exploring a wide range of materials and processes, most notably those involving fixing in 'hypo'.

Photogenic drawings were prepared by soaking a piece of good quality drawing paper in a weak solution of common salt, allowing this paper to dry, brushing it with a solution of silver nitrate, and then further washing it in a strong solution of common salt. Exposure was usually made by contact printing for as long as it took an image to appear. This image would then be fixed: Talbot used a strong solution of common salt for this or, occasionally, potassium iodide; Herschel's hypo fixer (sodium thiosulphate) dissolved away any remaining silver nitrate more efficiently and subsequently became the standard for all silver processes.

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Study of an oak leaf by Sir John Herschel (1792-1871), 26th February, 1839, from his hypo fixing experiments.

Apart from the examples of lace this negative photogenic drawing is Herschel's only contact image of a real object, rather than an engraving or other form of illustration.

The mark on the leaf seems to be a large J.

Contact image of heather, Erica mutabilis, made on stiff paper by W. H. Fox Talbot (1800-1877), dated March 1839.

Study of lace, by Sir John Herschel (1791-1871), 1839.

View of the telescope at Slough, by Sir John Herschel (1792-1871), 1839.

At the time that this was taken, Sir William Herschel's 40-foot telescope was already a famous astronomical symbol, although it was being demolished - hence the absence of the telescope's tube.

The only camera images Sir John Herschel is know to have taken are of his father's telescope; they also include the first photograph to be taken on glass (now in the Science Museum, London).

Negative image of an engraving of a lady by Sir John Herschel (1792-1871), 5th August, 1839, fixed with hypo.