The Graphic Society and Photography, 1839

The introduction of photography to scientific audiences in London during the early months of 1839 is well documented. Its announcement through the pages of the British press has been widely studied. The meetings of the Royal Institution and Royal Society in January 1839 at which William Henry Fox Talbot described and showed examples of his work are deeply embedded within the history of the medium.1 What has not been understood is whether London's fine arts community had similar access to those first photographs and what its reactions might have been. As a matter of professional interest, artists would have taken a close interest in photography, if not as a medium for their own use, then for the potential threat it posed to their livelihood. But did artists congregate in the same ways as scientists attending the Royal Institution and Royal Society? Or were they too disparate a group and too jealous of each other to hold meetings and assemblies? We know that François Arago in Paris sought Paul Delaroche's opinions of photography on behalf of the French government, but where did artists in London first see photographs, and how did they respond?2 This article sets out to answer some of these issues through the records and reports of the Graphic Society, whose monthly meetings during those critical months of early 1839 were attended by a broad cross-section of London's fine arts community (see Appendix 1).3

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