The William Henry Fox Talbot Catalogue Raisonné

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Object within Schaaf no. 3834

Bust of Venus, taken with a Camera Obscura

Object details

Created: 29 Feb 1840

Image size: h 18.0cm x w 21.3cm

Object Type: Salted Paper Print

Inscription: dated in the negative; in ink on verso: Camer. Obscur. H.F. Talbot 29 Feb. 1840.; pencil X recto

Provenance:
Talbot gift 1840

Owner: Académie des Beaux-Arts, Paris

Object owner number: 5.e.29 (1840) f 08

This object is part of Schaaf no. 3834

Bust of Venus, taken with a Camera Obscura

Keywords: Sculpture

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.