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Avenue of trees with building and fence and settled snow

Artist: Dudgeon, John William (attrib.) · 1819-1865Artist: Dudgeon of Kailzie, Patrick (attrib.) · 1817-1895

Avenue of trees with building and fence and settled snow

The attribution to Patrick Dudgeon of Kailzie appears clear from the extant documents relating to the original gift of 1993.360-1993.365 inc. The RSA…

The attribution to Patrick Dudgeon of Kailzie appears clear from the extant documents relating to the original gift of 1993.360-1993.365 inc. The RSA Council Minutes (1853-01-22) state: Mr Faed presented in the name of P Dudgeon Esq of Kailzie, three of that gentleman's photographs, which he presented to the Academy collection, and offered occasionally to add to them as he produced favourable specimens. The Secretary was instructed to write a letter of thanks ot Mr Dudgeon, and to state to him the high approval by the President and Council of his photographs." The Mr Faed was John Faed RSA (1819-1902) whose painting "Newton searching after the principles of light and colour" was lent by Patrick Dudgeon of Cargen (the estate he purchased in 1853 in succession to Kailzie) to the 1855 RSA Annual Exhibition (cat422). The RSA Council Minutes (1853-05-12) record a subsequent donationof photographs of the Pyrenees "executed by John Stewart Esq, who had sent them to Mr Dudgeon of Kailzie for presentation to the Academy. Mr Dudgeon at the same time had sent for presentation calotypes of woodland scenes, some of them done during snow lying on the ground, which was beautifully represented. The Secretary was authorised and directed to write to Mr Stewart a letter of thanks an dexpressing the satisfaction of the Council with the beauty of his calotypes and they directed that a similar letter be sent to Mr Dudgeon both for his own valuable gift, and for his interesting himself in securing impressions of Mr Stewart's photographs." By the 1853 RSA Annual Report however what appears to be a typographic error has crept in and amongst a quantity of calotypes presented to the Academy during 1853 reference is made to ; "a Series of Woodland Scenes, showing the delicate shadowings of some of them during snow, by J Dudgeon Esq of Kailzie."

He was a photographer annotating his work "JWH". In this capacity two of his images are reproduced in Blanquart-Evrard, 1851-1855 by Isabelle Jammes, Librarie Droz, Geneve, 1981, p.199, the originals being in a French private collection according to e-mail from photographic historian Roger Taylor to Nicola Ireland, RSA, 2008-07-31. Taylor in his Impressed by Light, British photographs from Paper negatives 1840-1860, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 2007 (p.309) links this annotation to the "donation of salt prints from waxed-paper negatives, landscapes of Dunkeld and Birnam taken in 1853" in the RSA. (This information taken from an index compiled at SNPG largely by Julie Lawson according to furthe re-mail exchange between Taylor and Ireland op cit.). These are the 6 prints tradiitonally attributed to John William Dudgeon (1993.360-1993.365 inc.) but on what evidence? The only references in the Minutes of Council (1853-01-22 & 1853-05-12)both refer to the donor being Mr P[atrick] Dudgeon of Kailzie and which strongly suggest also that he was the photographer of them also. Only in the RSA Annual Report for 1853 does the name J.Dudgeon Esq of Kailzie appear - this would appear to be in error for Patrick Dudgeon Esq of Kailzie; his younger brother John William Dudgeon was never involved with Kailzie. The annotated prints of views in Dunkeld and Birnam taken in 1853 may actually refer to an album held in the collections of Blair Castle in Perthshire, and which possibly further complicate matters by ascribing them also to Miss Dudgeon.