Winter Trees Reflected in a Pond
Talbot captured tree branches flawlessly mirrored on the glassy surface of the pond at his family seat, the 13th-century Lacock Abbey in Wiltshire. A longer exposure, or a lusher season, would have risked a blurred image. The result was a radically abstract composition for its time—a starkly beautiful landscape, as expressive and personal as any painting.
Details
- Palette
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- Dimensions
- image: height 0.164 m, width 0.191 m; paper: height 0.198 m, width 0.248 m; matted: height 0.406 m, width 0.508 m
- Origin
- England, 19th century
- Department
- Photography
- Holding institution
- Cleveland Museum of Art
- Image provider
- cleveland-museum-of-art
- License
- CC0-1.0
- Credit
- Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund
Art Genome Taxonomy
10 tags
Subject Matter
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Landscapes and Waterscapes Both · 99%
The image visibly presents a wooded landscape centered on a pond and its reflected trees; the museum catalog identifies the subject as trees reflected in a pond.
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Reflections Both · 99%
Tree trunks and branches visibly reappear across the water’s surface, and the catalog specifically describes them as flawlessly mirrored.
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Abstract Landscape Both · 90%
The recognizable landscape is transformed into a pattern of mirrored trunks and branching lines; the museum describes the result as a radically abstract composition.
Visual Qualities
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Mirrored Visual · 96%
The lower portion of the image repeats the vertical trunks and branching structures of the upper woodland as reflected forms.
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Symmetrical Visual · 80%
The reflection creates a strong horizontal axis and approximate bilateral correspondence between the woodland and its reflection, although the forms are not geometrically exact.
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Dark Colors Visual · 91%
Deep brown and near-black tree forms dominate against pale water and sky, producing a predominantly dark tonal range.
Medium and Techniques
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Photography Both · 100%
The work is visibly a photographic image, and the museum classifies it as a photograph made by a salted-paper process from a calotype negative.
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Traditional Photographic Techniques Metadata · 98%
The catalog identifies the medium as a salted paper print from a calotype negative, an early photographic process.
Time Periods
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19th Century Art Metadata · 100%
The work is dated 1841–42, placing it in the nineteenth century.
Geographic Regions
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British and Irish Art Metadata · 90%
The artist is identified as British and the place of origin as England.
Source & rights
William Henry Fox Talbot (British, 1800–1877). Winter Trees Reflected in a Pond. Cleveland Museum of Art.