Dates:
Location:
Halford Gallery, Bernard and Barbro Osher GallerySelected Works
Isola San Bartholomeo, 1842, quarter-plate daguerreotype, by Joseph-Philibert Girault de Prangey
Temple of Antoninus and Faustina, Rome, May 1846, salt print from a calotype negative, by Rev. Calvert Richard Jones, Welsh, 1802–1877
The Forum with the Column of Phocas, the Arch of Septimius Severus, and the Church of Santi Luca e Martina, 1849, salt print by Frédéric Flachéron , French, 1813–1883
The Arch of Titus with Figure, ca. 1850, salt print from a glass negative, by Eugéne Constant, French, dates unknown
A Palm Tree near the Basilica of San Pietro in Vincoli, ca. 1850–1852, salt print, attributed to Pierre Antoine de Bermond de Vaulx, French, 1821–1900
The Basilica of Santa Maria in Ara Coeli seen from the Capitoline, ca. 1852–1855, coated salted paper print from a paper negative, by Firmin-Eugène Le Dien (French, 1817–1865) and Gustav Le Gray (French, 1820–1884)
The Basilica of St. Peter’s and the Spina di Borgo Seen from Castel St. Angelo, ca. 1855, salt print, by James Anderson, British, 1813–1877
Palazzo Altoviti on the Tiber, ca. 1851–57, albumen print, Robert Macpherson, Scottish, 1814–1872
The Roman Forum seen from the Capitoline Hill with Moonlight Effect, ca. 1867, albumen silver print from glass negative, Gioacchino Altobelli , Italian, 1814–after 1878
About
In Light of Rome... comprehensively explores, for the first time in the United States, the contribution made by the cosmopolitan art center to the early history of photography and traces the medium’s rise there from a fledgling science to a dynamic form of artistic expression that forever changed the way we perceive the Eternal City. The exhibition ranges from 1842 to 1871, from the earliest pioneers—the French daguerreotypist Joseph-Philibert Girault de Prangey and the Welsh calotypist Calvert Richard Jones—to the work of the Roman School of Photography and its successors, among them James Anderson and Robert Macpherson of Britain; Frédéric Flachéron, Firmin Eugène Le Dien, and Gustave Le Gray of France; and Giacomo Caneva, Adriano de Bonis, and Pietro Dovizielli of Italy. Featuring 112 works, many never before seen publicly, by nearly fifty transnational photographers, this presentation and its accompanying catalogue will expand our understanding of Rome’s place in the evolution of early photography, and the pivotal role it played in the refinement and technical development of the nascent medium in the nineteenth century.
Read the exhibition labels here.
Read the press release here.
Press
“Seventy years after a groundbreaking exhibition on early photography in Rome, scholarship on the subject continues to advance,” Burlington Magazine, May 1, 2023
“When in Rome…,” Boston Globe, April 19, 2023
“In Light of Rome” brings “exceptional” photography collection to the BCMA, Bowdoin Orient, February 3, 2023
“Here, There, and Everywhere: A Rome exhibit in Maine, a dreamy eclipse escape, and a clever duffel backpack," Boston Globe, January 12, 2023
“In Light of Rome Photography Exhibition Opens,” Fine Books & Collections, December 20, 2022
“Exhibition Review: In Light of Rome,” Musée, December 19, 2022
Bowdoin College Museum of Art : In Light of Rome : Early Photography in the Capital of the Art World, 1842–1871, The Eye of Photography, December 8, 2022