544
Perhaps Fox’s most signifi cant contribution to art
was his systematic study of trees published as: The
Anatomy of Foliage. Photographed examples of the
principal forest trees, each taken from the same point
of view in winter and in summer; enabling the student
to trace the limbs when hidden by the masses of foliage.
Arranged by Thomas Hatton. Photographed by Edward
Fo x. The set was issued from 1865 to 1866 in eight
monthly parts each containing one pair of plates. The
sixteen photographs consist of eight pairs of trees: The
Oak, from Friar’s Oak, Clayton Sussex; The Elm, from
St. John’s Common, Sussex; The Sycamore, from the
Valley of Preston near Brighton; The Horse-Chestnut,
from the Rectory, Clayton, Sussex; The Spanish-Chest-
nut, from Buxted Park, Sussex; The Beech; The Ash and
The Lime.
The Brighton Gazette (23 November 1865) noted in
its perceptive review of The Anatomy of Foliage:
The principle puzzle in sketching trees from nature was
what to leave out ... Now here the photographic art has
the advantage. The photograph leaves out nothing. It
gives at once multiplicity and mass: it shows the general
distribution of light and shade without losing detail. It
is true that hitherto photographs of trees have not been
satisfactory. From the tremulous character of the sprays
... the clearness of the foliage has been lost and a black,
unmeaning mass has often been the rendering of the most
beautiful and delicate tracery. But the art advances. Our
townsman, Mr. Fox, has done wonders ... And in the
summer just gone by the same enchanter has compelled
the monarchs of the forest to stand before his magic lens
and deliver up their treasures.
The work was deemed exemplary for students for
“the details, if examined with a lens, are of the most
minute description, showing the very veins in the leaves
of the horse chestnut and the spine on its fruit.” The re-
view went on to record “the fact that the work is in use
at the Government School of Art at South Kensington
is an evidence of the estimation in which it is held by
some of the highest authorities in the kingdom.” The
Department of Science and Art purchased two copies in
October 1865 for £3.0.0 from Hatton who sold the prints
for Fox from his premises at 3 Ship Street, Brighton.
As well as being invaluable documents for the drafts-
man the photographs were also exhibited and praised
in their own right. They were shown at the soirée of
the Photographic Society of London, King’s College,
in June 1866 as studies of trees, “in and out of leaf”
(Photographic Journal vol. XI, 67).
Fox participated in a number of the exhibitions of
the Photographic Society of London, showing mainly
views of Brighton and its surroundings, in 1863, 1864,
1876, 1877, 1878 and lastly in 1880. By the 1890s his
photographic activity appears to have stopped. On 4
June, 1892 he placed a notice in the Brighton Herald:
“Mr. E. Fox, Artist & Landscape Photographer (Late of
44 Market-street), has removed to 15 Havelock Road,
Preston Park, where he respectfully solicits a Visit from
his old Friends and others to inspect his collection of oil
paintings and original photographs, which he is desirous
of disposing of at exceptionally low prices. On view from
10 to 5 daily.” At the age of seventy-nine, Fox was clearly
taking stock. The exact date of his death is not known.
Martin Barnes
Biography
Fox was born, probably in London or Brighton, England
in 1823. His father, also named Edward, was an artist
who specialised in views of Brighton and its surround-
ing topography. The young Edward followed his father
in the arts and is listed in the 1851 as a “decorative
painter.” His earliest known photographs are calotypes
dating from around 1856. Fox took as subjects many of
the local scenes of Brighton and the outlying villages,
towns and landscapes painted by his father. Around
1860 he began using wet collodion on glass negatives
and set up a photographic business at 44 Market Street,
Brighton where he promoted himself as a “Landscape
and Architectural Photographer.” His commercial activ-
ity also encompassed local views of a documentary and
topographical nature which he issued as stereographs
and cartes-de-vistes. In 1865 he made “instantaneous
photographs” of sea and sky in an oval format. Between
1865 and 1866 he issued The Anatomy of Foliage, pairs
of photographs of trees taken from the same vantage
point in summer and winter. These were devised as aids
for students of drawing and were used by the govern-
ment school of art.
See also: Architecture; and Carte-de-Visite.
Further Reading
Aperture: 158, “Photography and Time,” New York: Aperture,
2000.
The Brighton Gazette (23 November 1865) review of The
Anatomy of Foliage.
Haworth-Booth, Mark (Ed.), The Golden Age of British Photog-
raphy 1839–1900, New York: Aperture, 1984.
Public Record Offi ce Copyright Registration Files from 1862.
V&A Photography Collection fi les.
FRANCE
Photography began in France as early as 1816 when
Nicéphore Niépce, wrote to his brother Claude, about his
success of fi xing on white paper images of his garden’s
aviary. That was, as he himself said, still a defective
process of which no prints remain. The objects appeared
FOX, EDWARD
