The William Henry Fox Talbot Catalogue Raisonné

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Object within Schaaf no. 212

Bust of Venus

Object details

Alternate titles

Bust of Susanna, after Francois du Quesnoy

Created: Between 1 Aug 1835 and 30 Apr 1846

Image size: h 10.1cm x w 7.2cm

Object Type: Salted Paper Print

Mount: ruled edge mount

Physical description: shares an album page with another photograph, also of a sculpture bust

Inscription: in ink, on album page below print, Talbot.

Provenance:
Part of the T. B. Johnston album of photographs, gift of G. C. Monkhouse

Owner: George Eastman Museum

Object owner number: 76:0288:42

Supporting images

This object is part of Schaaf no. 212

Bust of Venus

Keywords: Sculpture

On a circular table top, one of the objects most photographed by Talbot, this statuette seems always to have been known as the “Bust of Venus” by the Talbot family. It was often referred to as such in inscriptions made by the likes of Lady Elisabeth Feilding. It is in fact a “Bust of Susanna”, reduced from the original full-figure marble statue by the Baroque sculptor, François du Quesnoy (1597-1643). The original is in the church of Santa Maria di Loreto, in Rome.