William Lake Price
Robinson Crusoe

CultureBritish
Titles
  • Robinson Crusoe
Datec. 1856
MediumAlbumen silver print from glass negative
DimensionsImage: 9 3/4 × 11 7/8 in. (24.8 × 30.2 cm)
Sheet: 9 3/4 × 11 7/8 in. (24.8 × 30.2 cm)
Mount: 10 7/8 × 13 15/16 in. (27.6 × 35.4 cm)
Credit LineMuseum purchase funded by John A. MacMahon
Object number2015.261
Current Location
The Nancy and Rich Kinder Building
Gallery 208
Exposé

Explore Further

Department
Photography
Object Type
Description

To affirm the place of their medium within the fine arts, some early photographers, particularly in Great Britain, depicted subjects drawn from history, religion, or literature and directed their scenes to emulate the expressive gestures and period details of grand history painting. Here, William Lake Price drew on Daniel Defoe’s 1719 novel The Life and Strange Surprizing Adventures of Robinson Crusoe. Although this approach was largely overshadowed in subsequent years by one that championed qualities unique to photographic vision, theatrical staging has become common again in the work of many contemporary artists.


Provenance[Dorotheum, Vienna, June 22, 2015, lot 13]; purchased by MFAH, 2015.
Inscriptions, Signatures and Marks
Inscribed in pencil, mount verso, top left: VI
Inscribed in pencil, mount verso, top left edge: 138-56391 7
Inscribed in pencil, mount verso, left edge sideways: Lake Price 1866
Inscribed in pencil, mount verso, lower right: A[?]8508

Cataloguing data may change with further research.

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