A Merry Tale

A Merry Tale dates to 1882. Widely published, even during Robinsons lifetime, it features five models- women-farmhands- who are collectively taking a break in the middle of a pathway. In the midst of their task of foraging, (wild berries?) their baskets and water jug placed on the ground at foreground, they laugh among themselves during the recounting of a “merry tale”.

Henry Peach Robinson: 1830-1901

Henry Peach Robinson was an English pictorialist photographer best known for his pioneering combination printing– joining multiple negatives or prints to form a single image; an early example of photomontage. He engaged in contemporary debates in the photographic press and associations about the legitimacy of ‘art photography’ and in particular the combining of separate images into one. -Wikipedia (2024)

Tags

Title

A Merry Tale

Photographer

Henry Peach Robinson

Journal

Die Kunst in der Photographie 1902

Country

England

Medium

Photogravure: Chine-collé

Atelier

Meisenbach, Riffarth & Co. (Berlin)

Year

1902

Dimensions

Image Dimensions14.5 x 19.5 cm Lieferung 5 | Fifth Issue

Support Dimensions26.5 x 35.1 cm cropped to plate marks

Print Notes

Recto: engraved: u.l.: Die Kunst in der Photographie 1902.; u.r.: Verlag von Wilhelm Knapp in Halle a/S.; l.l.: H.P. Robinson Redhill ✝; title, centered, lower margin: A MERRY TALE; l.r.: Meisenbach Riffarth & Co., hel. u. impr.; foxing to areas of outer support; non-printed loose tissue guard.

Exhibitions | Collections

-Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe, Hamburg: A Merry Tale, Henry Peach Robinson, 1902: (heliogravure from Die Kunst in der Photographie): inventory #AB 1988.H796

–National Galleries of Scotland, Edinburgh: A Merry Tale: 1891: photogravure: Accession number: PGP R 1124.7

–Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, MA: A Moving Tale (sic) photogravure: 1885: Object Number P1997.48

-Photogravure plate from Sun Artists Number 2 (1890) of A Merry Tale also held by: MIA, Minneapolis, MN; Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL; National Galleries of Australia; Seattle Art Museum; Photogravure.com, as well as other institutions and collections worldwide.

Published

MFA, Boston, MA: A Merry Tale: Ink-photolithograph: Supplement to “The Photographic News” [29th March, 1883.] ACCESSION NUMBER M6966

Ink Photo: Un Joyeux Conte: A Merry Tale: 1882 negative, 1886 print by Sprague & Co., London, in portfolio: La Photographie En Plein Air – Comment Le Photographe Devient Un Artiste

Margaret Harker, Henry Peach Robinson Master of Photographic Art 1830-1901, p. 70, fig. 39