WILLIAM HENRY FOX TALBOT | A MOUNTAIN RIVULET WHICH FLOWS AT THE FOOT OF DOUNE CASTLE

Lacock Abbey Collection

Collection of Howard Bond, Ann Arbor

In October 1844, Talbot traveled to Scotland to take pictures for a photographic project, later to be named Sun Pictures in Scotland; the objective was to document sites and scenes connected with the life and writing of Sir Walter Scott. During this trip Talbot took the present image of a stream running through woods north of Doune Castle, a location that played an important role in Scott’s first novel Waverley (1814). This photograph would become plate 20 in Sun Pictures in Scotland. However, prints of this image that come from copies of Sun Pictures are typically faint in comparison to the example offered here, which still retains rich chocolate-red tones and terrific detail.

This photograph, and that offered in Lot 171, come from the collection of Professor Graham Smith, former editor of the international quarterly journal History of Photography and author of several studies on Talbot, most notably on Sun Pictures in Scotland.