Henry Collen

Henry Collen ( born October 9, 1797 in London, † 8 May 1879 ) was an English painter and a pioneer of photography.

Collen as a portrait painter

Henry Collen was born in London and was baptized in the Church of St. Pancras. At the age of 29, he married his wife Ellen in Maghera, Ireland, where she grew up.

Painting learned Collen at the Royal Academy of Arts. His teacher was George Hayter, with whose family Collens family became friends closely. Henry Collen was godfather of Hayter's son Angelo Collen (1819-1898), and Hayter, in turn, was the godfather of Collens son Edwin Henry Hayter ( 1843-1911 ).

In the 1830s Henry Collen was personally with the heir to the throne Princess Victoria known, gave her drawing lessons, and she sat for several portraits for him (R. Derek Wood ( 1994)). From 1844 to 1879 Henry Collen was the editor of Debrett 's Peerage, which helped him to many contacts in the higher society. As a portrait painter, he was successful; 1820-1972 he exhibited at least 100 paintings at the Royal Academy and the Society of Botanical Artists ( SBA), and in 1821 he was honored by the Royal Academy with a silver medal. Some of his paintings hung in the library of Bodelwyddan Castle.

Collen worked with artists but also scientists of his time together, such as the well-known in the early 1840s astronomer John Herschel, the artist Thomas Scully and his wife. He and his wife were close friends not only with the Hayter, but also with the painter Edwin Landseer, who was known for his paintings of animals and the English peasant landscapes, as well as for his design of the four bronze lions at the foot of Nelson's Column in Trafalgar Square London.

Collen as a photographer

In the 1840s, Henry Collen had established himself as a portrait painter of reputation, but he was at that time also known for his photographic work. In March 1840 he began experiments in the field of electroforming using Daguerreotypieplatten and in the calotype. The calotype is a 1835 by the Englishman William Henry Fox Talbot ( 1800-1877 ) invented recording process of photography, with Collen was friends and worked together; Talbot contributed photographic and Collen the artistic knowledge. Talbot had the patent on the process, and in August 1841 he licensed Collen as the first official Kalotypisten, who had to pay 30 percent of Talbot for the license.

Then Collen opened the first calotype studio for portraits in London. He made about 1,000 portraits, which were well received by his colleagues. He made portraits in the style of miniature painting, which were then painted over, so Collen combined his two art forms. 1844 odds Collen and Talbot, and Collen retired from photography.

Treaty of Nanking

On August 29, 1842, the Treaty of Nanking was signed between the United Kingdom and China, with the first Opium War was ended. The original was taken by an officer to London, and Henry Collen got the job, " photocopy " the contract. In December 1842 he photographed in two days in an office of the Foreign Office the contract and put two copies ago, the first photocopy of an official document in history. A copy was intended for the Queen, who was framing the document and hang at Buckingham Palace, the original, the second was attached, which was returned to China. Collen presented for 19 pounds, 13 shillings and 7 pence charged. An album with photocopies of the contract is now in the George Eastman House, the oldest photography museum in the world, in Rochester. This museum houses a large collection of other works Collens.