Lot 428: f - FREDERICK FIEBIG 'SCENERY NEAR CALCUTTA', CIRCA 1850

Salt Print, signed in negative, with printed title and number '30' on a label affixed to the mount, framed and glazed, not examined out of frame,

EXHIBITED

Reverie and Reality, California Palace of the Legion of Honor, 2003-2004.
LITERATURE AND REFERENCES

Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco 2003, illustrated pl. 71.
CATALOGUE NOTE

At the beginning of the 1850s, the work of Frederick Fiebig began to blur the boundaries between amateur and professional photography in India. Fiebig took up photography in 1849 and in the following five years produced an extensive portfolio of calotype views, the majority in Calcutta and the surrounding area. A complete set of nearly 500 of these, in the form of hand-coloured salt prints, were purchased by the East India Company in 1856. In his correspondence with the Company, Fiebig refers to his photographic work as an activity of his 'leisure time.' But the clear investment of effort and material suggests that Fiebig had more than just an 'amateur' interest in photography.

170 by 219mm