Saint Louis Art Museum Courtesy of Saint Louis Art Museum, Martin Schweig Memorial Fund for Photography, Accession Number: 263:1979
Henry Peach Robinson's print is the second in an extremely rare series of four pictures illustrating this famous children's tale. The photograph displays a technical virtuosity unrivaled in the 1850s. Working at a time when photographic chemistry required long exposures, Robinson nevertheless managed to give the girl a spontaneous, candid facial expression that looks natural in spite of the photograph's early date.
One of the most influential photographers of the nineteenth century, Robinson argued for a photographic art based on conscious composition; that is, one in which the photographer carefully planned and arranged the subject, often with the aid of preliminary sketches, before making a picture.
