L'Abandonné

This photograph is reproduced from the periodical “The Practical Photographer” : London:  Library Series No 16 (March 1905)  Alfieri, author of the 1893 photographic travel guide “Half Holidays with a Camera,” was a founder member of the British Linked Ring Brotherhood.  Compared to this example, a reference image  reviewed for research from the George Eastman House shows the original photogravure having an  unmanipulated “straight” sky versus this halftone image with dramatic shafts of light emanating from the clouds. The photograph  dates to 1893.

Caption information published in the Practical Photographer for this image: titled “The Derelict” :  

“This picture was taken on Breydon Water, near
 Yarmouth, late one evening. It is a composition which 
well illustrates the force of a simple subject. This 
old boat in its forsaken lonely condition is happily
 placed, and at once engages our interest. The
 sentiment suggested by the end of the life of this old
 seagoing worthy is happily echoed by the declining 
hours of the day, when the setting sun draws round his 
couch the cloud curtains of the coming night. The
 student should not fail to note the shore line leading
up to the focus of interest in the picture, and how 
its ever varying curvature gives it an attractive
 grace and force.”

This plate has gone missing from the original portfolio.  A similar halftone view of the original photogravure has been substituted here.