1, FREDERICK H EVANS 11. Gloucester Cathedral. Gambier Parry's painting in St. Andrew's Chapel 1890 Platinum Print 5.3x4.5" ASG# FHE/1042

2. FREDERICK H. EVANS 31. Gloucester Cathedral Early English Arcade 1890 Platinum Print 4.5x6" ASG# FHE/1046

Thomas Gambier Perry was an artist and philanthropist (1816-1888) known for Italian Fresco style painting as here. In the images is a contemporary color photo of the same mural photographed by Evans in this lot.

These prints, Evans earliest Cathedral photographs in Great Britain, were originally found in an album titled Gloucester assembled by Albert B. Harrison (see lots 128 & 129), each page taped in. The album pages are 10.2x8.2" heavy white album page with a sepia decorative border around each print. Each print is titled, signed and dated in pencil under the print in the decorative border area.

About this specific group was written by 1889 "Evans displayed a truly remarkable command of both the medium and his subject. His documentation of buildings such as Canterbury and Gloucester Cathedrals was unusual in itself - no one came close to Evan's methodical approach - but what really makes these images stand out from the plethora of cathedral views (before and after Evans) lies in his ability to capture the physical structures while imbuing the scene with poetry and romance, displaying an imagination that goes beyond merely recording these stone structures."

This lot features some of the decorative aspects of the Cathedral and indoor and outdoor architectural details.

Provenance: Robert Hershkowitz, Early English Photographer Dealer, Linfield, Sussex, England 1999

Frederick H. Evans 1853-1943, the foremost British photographer in the 1890-1910 period, was a bookseller and collector, known and respected by many of the famous artists, writers and critics living in England in the late nineteenth century. Through his early landscape and nature photography he attempted to show that the physical realm corresponded to the spiritual.

In 1887 he received the Photographic Society's Medal of Honour for these artistic studies. He had a circle of friends interested in photography including Albert Benjamin Harrison (who not only studied with Evans in but collected the Gloucester cathedral work that these prints were originally found in). At age forty-five, Evans sold his bookshop and took up photography full time to pursue his "life-long study of the beautiful." After P. H. Emerson, Evans was the earliest great platinum print artistic photographer.

Evan's greatest contribution to the history of photography was his interpretation of the majestic medieval cathedrals of England. His intention was to make viewers feel as if they were actually inside the cathedrals when they looked at his photographs. To achieve this he sometimes spent as much as two weeks living in a cathedral studying the way light and shadow defined forms and created a spiritual atmosphere

In 1900, Evans had a large one-man exhibition of his platinum photographs at the Royal Photographic Society. That same year he was elected to join the Brotherhood of the Linked Ring, a group of photographers who had seceded from the London Photographic Society. In 1903 he contributed a portfolio of cathedral photographs and an article to the fourth issue of Camera Work. He was the first English photographer invited by Stieglitz to contribute to the publication.

11. Gambiers Parry’s painting Excellent rich print linen tape residue left edge of mount, faintly detectable light brown spots on mount overall.
31. Early English Arcade light exposure, Very Good very light shift ¼ inch from edges throughout from underlying adhesive. Minor soiling