Tivoli_ Waterfall c. 1860 - 1865

cardboard, albumen-print, paper

cardboard

albumen-print

tree

shape in negative space

natural shape and form

16_19th-century

negative space

landscape

waterfall

possibly oil pastel

paper

carved into stone

mountain

carved

watercolour illustration

tonal art

italy

remaining negative space

watercolor

"Tivoli_ Waterfall" is a mid-19th century photographic work by Robert Macpherson, notable for its use of an oval format. The photograph, likely taken between 1860 and 1865, captures a waterfall cascading through a rocky, forested landscape. Macpherson’s choice to depict the waterfall in an oval frame adds a sense of intimacy and draws the viewer’s eye to the dynamic movement of the water. This work, now part of the Städel Museum's collection, demonstrates Macpherson's interest in capturing the grandeur of nature through the medium of photography.

Comments

stadelmuseum over 1 year ago

⋮

For nineteenth-century travellers to Rome, an excursion to the surrounding region—the Campagna, situated betweenthe Tyrrhenian Sea and the Apennines—was a must. In the town of Tivoli, the great waterfall in the park of the Villa Gregoriana had already been attracting artists since the eighteenth century. They usually concentrated on staging the breathtaking natural scenery in interplay with the remains of ancient culture. Robert Macpherson, a surgeon by training, focussed solely on the plunging water, complete with the bright reflections off the mist it causes. Whereas the light on the cliffs at the left brings out their rugged surface structure in all precision, the dense vegetation to the right of the waterfall remains in the dark. The oval shape heightens the image’s poetic effect and draws all the more attention to the motif.