Pictorialism

HP Robertson's photograph When the days work is done taken in 1877, shows a couple relaxing together after work. The couple are old and the house they are sitting in is quite small and a little cluttered which suggests that they are working class. The shadows on the subjects from the light shining through the window theorize that the lighting is natural. Photographing reality is one of the main aspects of the image. Quote from HP Robertson himself before the photo shoot. "One of the best models I ever employed was an old man of seventy-four. He was a crossing-sweeper. I should never have accomplished one of my best works if I had not seen him sitting at a table in my studio, waiting, till I could talk to him. I not only saw the old man there, but mentally, the old lady, and the interior of the cottage...The old man, by his attitude and expression, gave the germ of the idea; the old lady had to be found, and the cottage built, but they appeared to me then quite visibly and solidly." He was in search of a example of domestic rural life and was looking for the "genuine peasant" as he put it.

The visual information of the image is typical of pictorialism because sepia toning is used alongside soft focusing. Robertson used a technique called combination printing which involved multiple prints or negatives and joining them together to create one image; similar to a photomontage. This effect creates a fine art feel to the image hence making the image look more like a painting than a photograph and also showing that photography is not only used to capture truth but, by manipulating the final product this theory was forgotten.  

Robertson has been a huge influence in transforming photography into a form of art and was a supporter of the Photographic Convention of the UK, being a part of the debates that arose concerning this.