Photographers S.J. Dailey and Thomas Moorhouse Fox in their Clarendon studio

Dailey & Fox
Australia
active 1860s – 1878

S. J. Dailey
Australia
1842 – 1899

Thomas Moorhouse Fox
Australia
1840 – 1881

Photographers S.J. Dailey and Thomas Moorhouse Fox in their Clarendon studio
c.1862
ambrotype
Place made
Clarendon, South Australia
Medium
ambrotype
Dimensions
9.5 x 7.0 cm (sight, oval)
10.8 x 9.6 cm (frame)
Credit line
J.C. Earl Bequest Fund 2006
Accession number
20063Ph5
Signature and date
Not signed. Not dated.
Media category
Photograph
Collection area
Australian Photographs

  • WALL LABEL: Public Image, Private Lives: Family, Friends and Self in Photography, 2016

     

    This is the earliest known double self-portrait in South Australia and shows the photographers Samuel Dailey (left) and Thomas Moorhouse Fox (right) in their Clarendon studio. At first glance the studio appears to be a plush drawing room, but the exterior scene through the window is revealed as a trompe l’oeil, with Fox’s arm resting on an imaginary windowsill.

     

    Dailey & Fox operated their photographic business in Adelaide from 1861 to 1869. A letter from Fox’s brother indicates the importance of photographic portraits as mementoes to send to family members; he wrote that he expected to receive ’one or two a month’. 

     

    Julie Robinson, Senior Curator of Prints, Drawings & Photographs

     

  • The photograph in Australia

    Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art, 4 July 2015 – 11 October 2015

  • Public Image, Private Lives: Family, Friends and Self in Photography

    Art Gallery of South Australia, 5 February 2016 – 18 September 2016

  • The photograph in Australia

    Art Gallery of New South Wales, 21 March 2015 – 8 June 2015

  • A Century in Focus: South Australian photography 1840s-1940s

    Art Gallery of South Australia, 9 November 2007 – 28 January 2008
  • [Catalogue] Zagala, Maria, Jane Messenger, Ken Orchard, Philip Jones, Carolyn Lovitt, and Elspeth Pitt. 2007. A Century in Focus - South Australian Photography 1840s - 1940s. Adelaide: Art Gallery of South Australia.
  • [Book] Annear, Judy. The photograph and Australia.