The Dargle Rock
Payne Jennings
British, 1843–1926
c. 1880
An albumen silver print showing an artist working en plein air at the Dargle, made to record both the rugged Irish landscape and the human act of making a picture within it.
What strikes you first is how small the painter appears against towering, lichen‑streaked rock faces and a milky, long‑exposed stream, with a bent tree branch theatrically framing the scene and emphasizing a quiet, reverent solitude.
Taken in the late nineteenth century, the image exemplifies how photography began to document and aestheticize landscape and the practice of plein air painting, collapsing distinctions between photographic record and artistic experience and helping redefine modern approaches to seeing nature.
Medium
Albumen silver print
Dimensions
9 3/8 × 11 1/2" (23.9 × 29.1 cm)
Classification
Department
Credit
John Parkinson III Fund
Accession
516.1981
Palette
Exhibitions
