Exhibition
Copied by the Sun/ Copiado por el sol: Talbotype Illustrations to the Annals of the Artists of Spain
Museo Nacional del Prado, 18 May – 4 September 2016
Curated by Hilary Macartney (University of Glasgow) and José Manuel Matilla (Museo Nacional del Prado).
The exhibition offered a unique opportunity to see how the historic volume of Talbotype Illustrations to the Annals of the Artists of Spain was created. For the first time since they were photographed in 1847, many of the working proofs from Henneman’s studio were brought together with some of the artworks they represent, as well as several of the surviving copies of the volume. It also explained the photographic process involved, showed some of the precedents to the Annals Talbotypes, and presented examples of the often complex relationship between original, intermediary copy and photograph. Nearly a quarter of the illustrations in the book are of paintings in the Prado Museum, which also owns an example of the volume itself.
