Edwin Dalton (artist)
[5][6] The following month, the Empire newspaper singled Dalton's crayon portraits out for praise, particularly those of Chief Justice Sir Alfred Stephen and Mr.
While citing the merits of photographers Gow, Glaister and Freeman they made special mention of Dalton's crayon portraits.These they felt were the equal of any produced by photography or an artist using oils.
[14] Dalton's portrait of English operatic soprano Madame Anna Bishop was singled out by the Sydney newspaper Empire for, its fidelity of portraiture, depth of tone, and beauty of, colouring, and further stating it ranked, with any work, in its particular line of art, we have yet seen in the colony.
Throughout 1857 Dalton continued to work in a variety of mediums but specialising in collodion and crayon portraits which were finished in a style similar to ivory miniatures.
[20] One of these, a portrait of Killner Walker who died when the ill-fated Dunbar was shipwrecked at South Head, was copied directly from a dim and faded daguerreotype.
[21][22] This painting, and one of Mariann Egan (another of the 121 passengers who died in the wreck) was put on public view in Dalton's studio where they formed part of the many expressions of grief by Sydneysiders shocked by the disaster.
[24] On 8 December Dalton exhibited three examples of his "crayotype" process which combined, "the finish and brilliancy of artistic portraiture with the truthfulness, relief, and power of the photograph", at the conversazione of the Philosophical Society.
Sourcing such a large number of individual portraits required 3–4 months of Dalton's time and the result was touted as being, far beyond anything of its kind previously attempted in the colony.
[27] At the centre of the image was Sir Daniel Cooper wearing his official robe while around him were members of his administration, supported by those who occupied prominent positions in the political arena.
[28][29] The photograph, along with his "crayotypes", was displayed in that year's conversazione hosted by the Philosophical Society in the hall of the Australian Subscription Library, in Bent Street, Sydney.
[29] It is clear that by the end of 1859 Dalton was using a range of photographic processes including portraits in crayon, oils, watercolours, paper, collodion, as well as microscopic and stereoscopic photography.
A fire which started in the George Street premises of Mr. Foster (a confectioner) quickly spread and engulfed the Dalton's photographic studio on the upper stories of the building, completely destroying its contents.
Losses included photographic instruments, chemical supplies, several hundred negative plates, crayotype portraits and etchings made by Queen Victoria which the Dalton's had brought with them from England.
By August, Montague Scott had also split from Dalton's and was now manager of the Sydney and Melbourne Photographic Company, at 392 George Street, above Mr Sands.
