Inscription: in ink verso: Camera Obscura H.F. Talbot Phot. 29 Feb 1840
Provenance: The British Library, gift of Janet and Petronella Burnett-Brown, 1 March 2006 Fox Talbot Museum, Lacock Abbey, National Trust (01500); Talbot Album No. 6, FTM Notebook 4
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.
