Partridges (recto) (c. 1861): Art, History and Details

Partridges (recto) (c. 1861) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Captain N. Baily (British).

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

N. Baily carefully arranged a simple composition of two partridges hanging by a thin rope against a plain wood wall. Like many photographers in the 1850s and '60s, he was interested in displaying the camera’s ability to record in detail the variety of shapes and textures present in the still life. Little is known of Baily, a British amateur photographer. He was a member of the Amateur Photographic Association and participated in several of their album exchanges. Still lifes incorporating game, fowl, and fish were popular among amateur photographers during this period. Many members of the Amateur Photographic Association were gentlemen that formerly belonged to the British armed forces and would have participated in hunting as a pastime.

Object facts

• Title: Partridges (recto)
• Date: c. 1861
• Creator attribution: Captain N. Baily (British)
• Culture: England, 19th century
• Type: Photograph
• Technique: albumen print from wet collodion negative
• Dimensions: Image: 23.9 x 19.3 cm (9 7/16 x 7 5/8 in.); Matted: 45.7 x 35.6 cm (18 x 14 in.)
• Collection: Photography
• Department: Photography
• Accession number: 1987.21.a

Collection credit

Andrew R. and Martha Holden Jennings Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• Cleveland Museum of Art, Tom E Hinson. Catalogue of Photography. Cleveland, OH: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1996.

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.