Skilled Artworkers

Studio and Gallery

Walter William Winter advertised himself as as Artist in Photography. We are so used to being able to snap a photo on a camera or phone that we forget the artistry involved in producing a beautiful portrait. Winter came from a family of artists so it was natural for him to see photography as an art form. As such he fashioned his studio on Midland Road as a gallery including photography, landscape paintings and decorated ceramics. You can see the artworks on display in early photographs of the studio:

Art worker's Equipment

Photographs were originally retouched (altered and improved) directly on to the glass negative. Pencil marks would be used to smooth out a sitters skin, lightening under the eyes and contouring cheeks. To do this, art workers would use a range of pencils like the ones below.

This set was produced by the art supplies company Rowney & Co Ltd, who merged with Daler in 1983 to form Daler-Rowney.

Photographs could also be hand tinted prior to the development of colour printing. Usually printed in sepia, watercolour paints were then hand painted onto the photograph to produce a gently coloured image. At Winters both pans and tubes were used:

It is not known whether ceramics were hand painted at the studios. Winter would have seen the opening of Royal Crown Derby at its Osmaston Road site in 1877. However, we do have a gorgeous set of ceramic paints in the Winters collection dating from between 1859 and 1897.

The colour swatch names have been written in by hand.

All these lovely items will be on display at our open days and for private tours. You can keep up to date with our heriateg events by following Freinds of Winters on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/FriendsofWinters/