[A Group Poses in Front of a Backdrop] (Verso)

In The Pencil of Nature, William Henry Fox Talbot’s 1844-46 illustrated treatise on photography, he observed that

“portraits of living persons and groups of figures form one of the most attractive subjects of photography. . . . Groups of figures take no longer time to obtain than single figures would require, since the Camera depicts them all at once, however numerous they may be: but at present we cannot well succeed in this branch of art without some previous concert and arrangement. If we proceed to the City, and attempt to take a picture of the moving multitude, we fail, for in a small fraction of a second they change their positions so much, as to destroy the distinctness of the representation. But when a group of persons has been artistically arranged, and trained by a little practice to maintain an absolute immobility for a few seconds of time, very delightful pictures are easily obtained. I have observed that family groups are especial favourites: and the same five or six individuals may be combined in so many varying attitudes, as to give much interest and a great air of reality to a series of such pictures. What would not be the value to our English Nobility of such a record of their ancestors who lived a century ago?”

While the indistinct details and lack of annotation make the identification of the individuals in this group portrait difficult, it is possible that Nicolaas Henneman is the man on the right and that Talbot’s half-sister Horatia is the woman standing to the left. One of Talbot’s daughters steadies herself with a hand on the knee of a seated figure, most likely her governess, Amelina Petit. A sheet of cloth haphazardly draped outside Lacock Abbey forms the backdrop.

Larry Schaaf, William Henry Fox Talbot, In Focus: Photographs from the J. Paul Getty Museum (Los Angeles: Getty Publications, 2002), 56. ©2002 J. Paul Getty Trust.