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Home>Exhibitions>Past>2019>The Eye of the Sun: Nineteenth-Century Photographs from the National Gallery of Art

The Eye of the Sun: Nineteenth-Century Photographs from the National Gallery of Art

September 8 – December 8, 2019
West Building, Ground Floor, Inner Tier Galleries

William Edward Kilburn, Queen Victoria and Children, January 19, 1852, daguerreotype with applied color, National Gallery of Art, Washington, Patrons' Permanent Fund, 2018.145.13

This exhibition is no longer on view at the National Gallery.

On the 180th anniversary of photography’s introduction to the world in 1839, an exhibition of some 140 photographs offers an in-depth look at the development of the medium throughout its first 50 years. The Eye of the Sun draws from the Gallery’s rich holdings of 19th-century photographs and features many works which have not been on view previously, including several photographs recently acquired from Charles Isaacs and Carol Nigro.

The exhibition is organized chronologically and thematically, beginning with the earliest photographs in the collection by one of photography’s inventors, William Henry Fox Talbot, and several examples of daguerreotypes, and ending with photographs made in 1889 by the Kodak, the first snapshot camera. Sections focus on themes of portraiture and self-presentation; landscape; the built environment; travel abroad and on the frontier; war; and photography and art. Among the photographers featured are Hill and Adamson, Mary Dillwyn, Roger Fenton, Francis Frith, Lewis Carroll, Julia Margaret Cameron, Gustave Le Gray, Charles Marville, Charles Nègre, Édouard-Denis Baldus, Andrew Joseph Russell, Carleton E. Watkins, Eadweard Muybridge, and John Moran.

The exhibition is curated by Diane Waggoner, curator of 19th-century photographs, with Kara Fiedorek, Andrew W. Mellon Post-Doctoral Curatorial Fellow, both National Gallery of Art, Washington.

Revised Closing Date: This exhibition has been extended for viewing through December 8 (extended from December 1).

The Eye of the Sun Nineteenth-Century Photographs from the National Gallery of Art

William Henry Fox Talbot, Winter Trees, Reflected in a Pond, 1841-1842, salted paper print, Purchased as the Gift of the Richard King Mellon Foundation, 2018.6.2
The Eye of the Sun Nineteenth-Century Photographs from the National Gallery of Art

William Edward Kilburn, Queen Victoria and Children, January 19, 1852, daguerreotype with applied color, Patrons' Permanent Fund, 2018.145.13
The Eye of the Sun Nineteenth-Century Photographs from the National Gallery of Art

Amelie Guillot-Saguez, Portrait of a Girl, 1849, salted paper print with applied color, Pepita Milmore Memorial Fund, 2019.19.1
The Eye of the Sun Nineteenth-Century Photographs from the National Gallery of Art

Andrew & Ives, Frederick Douglass, 1863, albumen print (carte-de-visite), Pepita Milmore Memorial Fund, 2018.95.1
The Eye of the Sun Nineteenth-Century Photographs from the National Gallery of Art

John Dillwyn Llewelyn, A Summer's Evening, Penllergare, August 25, 1854, albumen print, Purchased as the Gift of Diana and Mallory Walker, 2018.5.2
The Eye of the Sun Nineteenth-Century Photographs from the National Gallery of Art

Frederick DeBourg Richards, McAllister's Optical Shop, Philadelphia, December 12, 1854, daguerreotype, Gift of Charles Isaacs and Carol Nigro Ph.D, 2017.191.4
The Eye of the Sun Nineteenth-Century Photographs from the National Gallery of Art

Colonel Henry Stuart Wortley, Sunset at Sea, 1860s, albumen print, Purchased as the Gift of Diana and Mallory Walker, 2018.7.7
The Eye of the Sun Nineteenth-Century Photographs from the National Gallery of Art

Eugène Cuvelier, Gorges de Franchard - Forêt de Fontainebleau (Franchard Gorges – Fontainebleau Forest), October 20, 1863, salted paper print, Purchased as the Gift of the Richard King Mellon Foundation, 2018.6.1
The Eye of the Sun Nineteenth-Century Photographs from the National Gallery of Art

Pierre-Ambrose Richebourg, Assembly of Troops for Napoleon III, Place Bellecour de Lyon, 1860, albumen print, Purchased as the Gift of Diana and Mallory Walker, 2019.20.3
The Eye of the Sun Nineteenth-Century Photographs from the National Gallery of Art

Charles Marville, Hôtel de la Marine, 1864–1870, albumen print, Diana and Mallory Walker Fund, 2006.23.1
The Eye of the Sun Nineteenth-Century Photographs from the National Gallery of Art

Andrew Joseph Russell, Stone Wall, Rear of Fredericksburg, with Rebel Dead, May 3, 1863, albumen print, Robert B. Menschel and the Vital Projects Fund, 2016.154.1
The Eye of the Sun Nineteenth-Century Photographs from the National Gallery of Art

Gayford & Speidel, “Christopher Anderson, Priv. Co. F. 108 U.S.C.T.”, 1865, albumen print (carte-de-visite), Pepita Milmore Memorial Fund, 2018.95.4
The Eye of the Sun Nineteenth-Century Photographs from the National Gallery of Art

Francis Frith, The Pyramids of El-Geezeh, from the South-West, 1858, albumen print, Patrons' Permanent Fund, 2018.145.6
The Eye of the Sun Nineteenth-Century Photographs from the National Gallery of Art

Charles Lutwidge Dodgson (Lewis Carroll), Lorina and Alice Liddell in Chinese Dress, 1860, albumen print, Pepita Milmore Memorial Fund, Robert B. Menschel and the Vital Projects Fund, The Ahmanson Foundation, and New Century Fund, 2015.78.1
The Eye of the Sun Nineteenth-Century Photographs from the National Gallery of Art

Julia Margaret Cameron, A Minstrel Group, 1867, albumen print, Purchased as the Gift of the Richard King Mellon Foundation, 2018.7.11
The Eye of the Sun Nineteenth-Century Photographs from the National Gallery of Art

Eadweard Muybridge, Plate Number 169. Jumping over boy's back (leapfrog), 1887, collotype, Corcoran Collection (Museum Purchase, 1887), 2014.79.215
The Eye of the Sun Nineteenth-Century Photographs from the National Gallery of Art

American 19th Century, Untitled (Fishbowl), c. 1888, gelatin silver print, Gift of Robert E. Jackson, 2006.161.2

Organization: Organized by the National Gallery of Art, Washington

Sponsors: The exhibition is made possible through the generous support of the Trellis Fund.

Passes: Admission is always free and passes are not required

Attendance: 48,348

Web Feature: Objects in Focus: The Eye of the Sun

Press Materials

Concerts
Victory Hall Opera
Heartstrings
September 29 at 3:30
West Building, West Garden Court

Lectures
Photography and Nation Building in the Nineteenth Century
October 6 at 2:00
East Building Auditorium

Film Programs
Ruskin
October 19 at 2:30 p.m.
West Building Lecture Hall

Gallery Talks
The Eye of the Sun: Nineteenth-Century Photographs from the National Gallery of Art
October 16, 18, 24, 29 at 1:00
November 15, 21 at 1:00
West Building Rotunda

Lectures
Before the Kodak Girl: Women in Nineteenth-Century Photography
November 24 at 2:00
West Building Lecture Hall

Adamson, Robert
Scottish, 1821 - 1848
Baldus, Édouard-Denis
French, 1813 - 1889
Cameron, Julia Margaret
British, 1815 - 1879
Carroll, Lewis
British, 1832 - 1898
Dillwyn, Mary
Welsh, 1816 - 1906
Fenton, Roger
British, 1819 - 1869
Frith, Francis
British, 1822 - 1898
Hill, David Octavius
Scottish, 1802 - 1870
Kilburn, William Edward
British, 1818 - 1891
Le Gray, Gustave
French, 1820 - 1884
Marville, Charles
French, 1813 - 1879
Moran, John
American, 1831 - 1902
Muybridge, Eadweard
American, 1830 - 1904
Nègre, Charles
French, 1820 - 1880
Russell, Andrew Joseph
American, 1829 - 1902
Talbot, William Henry Fox
British, 1800 - 1877
Watkins, Carleton E.
American, 1829 - 1916
Before the Kodak Girl: Women in Nineteenth-Century Photography
Audio, Released: January 28, 2020, (54:08 minutes)
Before the Kodak Girl: Women in Nineteenth-Century Photography
Video, Released: January 28, 2020, (54:08 minutes)
Photography and Nation Building in the Nineteenth Century
Audio, Released: December 3, 2019, (45:54 minutes)
Press Event: The Eye of the Sun: Nineteenth-Century Photographs from the National Gallery of Art
Audio, Released: September 4, 2019, (53:37 minutes)