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Walter de la Mare

2 of 6 portraits by Hector Ernest Murchison

© National Portrait Gallery, London

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Walter de la Mare

by Hector Ernest Murchison
gum bichromate print, 1912
9 3/4 in. x 7 5/8 in. 249 mm x 193 mm
Given by M.K. Clowes, 1954
Photographs Collection
NPG x13379

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The poet and writer de la Mare is shown here partially dematerialised, as if a character in one of the ghost stories for which he was already well known. The print was made using a mixture of gum Arabic, potassium dichromate (often called bichromate, a hardening agent), and pigment applied to paper. This mixture hardens when exposed to light under a negative. However, because the gum remains soluble, the process allows the artist to work into the surface until it is dried. In this case, the results resemble a charcoal drawing more than a traditional photograph.

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Current affairs

The Royal Flying Corps is established. During the Great War, planes and balloons were used mainly for reconnaissance and observation before technological advances made them fast enough and manoeuvrable enough to attack enemy positions and fight in the air. Arthur (Bomber) Harris won distinction as a pilot destroying five enemy aircraft in the war. In the Second World War he became Marshal of the Royal Air Force.

Art and science

George Bernard Shaw writes Pygmalion.
Charles Babbage's invents the Analytic Machine. Considered to be the forerunner to the modern computer, the machine was able to make automatic mathematical calculations.

International

Scott leads the British Expedition to the South Pole reaching it in January 1912 only to discover that the rival Norwegian party had beaten them by a month. All members of Scott's team perished on the return journey. Captain Oates' famous last words were immortalised in Scott's diary: 'I am just going outside and may be some time.'
The 'unsinkable' Titanic strikes an iceberg and goes down on its maiden journey between Southampton and New York.

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