Accession Number
2002/2.234.2

Title
A Rushy Shore, plate XXXV, from "Life and Landscape on the Norfolk Broads"

Artist(s)
Peter Henry Emerson

Object Creation Date
1887

Medium & Support
platinum print on paper

Dimensions
11 9/16 in x 16 ⅜ in (29.37 cm x 41.59 cm);20 in x 16 in (50.8 cm x 40.64 cm)

Credit Line
Museum purchase made possible by the W. Hawkins Ferry Fund

Label copy
Gallery Rotation Spring/Summer 2011
Peter Henry Emerson
England, 1856–1936
A Rushy Shore, plate XXXV from Life and Landscape on the Norfolk Broads
1886
Platinum print
Museum purchase made possible by the W. Hawkins Ferry Fund, 2002/2.234.2
Initially trained as a physician, Emerson purchased his first camera in 1881 while a student at Cambridge University; in 1886 he abandoned medicine for photography.
Life and Landscape on the Norfolk Broads was a photographic album that Emerson co-authored with the English painter Thomas F. Goodall (1856–1944). This work shows the artist’s deep connection with the broads (or marshes) of the Suffolk landscape near Norfolk, a subject matter found in nearly all his works. He often portrayed these watery lowlands with a very high horizon line. Here, the sharp, staccato accents of the reeds in the water of the foreground diminish the viewer’s sense of spatial recession, an effect that is further enhanced by the nearly abstract patterning of the reeds in contrast to the simple rounded masses of the huts and houses.

Subject matter
Initially trained as a physician, Emerson purchased his first camera in 1881 while a student at Cambridge University; in 1886 he abandoned medicine for photography. "Life and Landscape on the Norfolk Broads" was a photographic album that Emerson co-authored with the English painter Thomas F. Goodall (1856–1944). This work shows the artist’s deep connection with the broads (or marshes) of the Suffolk landscape near Norfolk, a subject matter found in nearly all his works. He often portrayed these watery lowlands with a very high horizon line. Here, the sharp, staccato accents of the reeds in the water of the foreground diminish the viewer’s sense of spatial recession, an effect that is further enhanced by the nearly abstract patterning of the reeds in contrast to the simple rounded masses of the huts and houses.

Physical Description
This photograph is horizontally oriented and portrays a marshy shoreline. The foreground is filled with rushes. The horizon line, in the upper portion of the work, depicts homes, a windmill in the distance, and patches of water. Bare trees also dot this outdoor scene.

Primary Object Classification
Photograph

Primary Object Type
black and white print

Additional Object Classification(s)
Photograph

Collection Area
Photography

Rights
If you are interested in using an image for a publication, please visit http://umma.umich.edu/request-image for more information and to fill out the online Image Rights and Reproductions Request Form.

Keywords
Landscapes
marshes
photographs