Vivien and Merlin
Photograph
1874 (photographed)
1874 (photographed)
| Artist/Maker | |
| Place of origin |
In 1874 Alfred Tennyson, the Poet Laureate, invited Cameron to make photographic illustrations to Idylls of the King, his series of narrative poems based on the legends of King Arthur. After her large photographs were published as small, wood-cut copies, Cameron decided to produce an edition illustrated by original photographic prints accompanied by hand-written extracts from the poems printed in facsimile. She claimed to have made as many as 245 exposures to arrive at the 25 she finally published in two volumes in 1874 and 1875.
Object details
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| Materials and techniques | Albumen print from wet collodion glass negative |
| Brief description | Photograph by Julia Margaret Cameron, 'Vivien and Merlin' (sitters Agnes Mangles, Charles Hay Cameron)', albumen print, 1874 |
| Physical description | A photograph of a woman (Agnes Mangles) seated in profile with a fringed shawl tied around her torso looking with her hand upon the chest of the bearded man (Charles Hay Cameron) also seated in profile. |
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| Gallery label | Making It Up: Photographic Fictions (2018)
Cameron produced two volumes of illustrations to Idylls of the King, Alfred Tennyson’s cycle of narrative poems based on the legends of King Arthur. Here the sorceress Vivien, played by Agnes Mangles, casts a spell over the wizard Merlin, enacted by Cameron’s husband Charles. Mangles later wrote that Charles could not stop chuckling during the theatrically posed sitting, thus spoiling many negatives.
Marta Weiss |
| Credit line | Given by Miss Agnes May Ffytche, 1927 |
| Object history | Originally part of a bound folio volume containing 11 photographs by Cameron and 11 pages of verse text by Tennyson and 3 other text pages (two photographs are missing, the frontispiece image of Tennyson and the last image, 'The Passing of Arthur'). Volume 1 of two albums of illustrations to Tennyson's 'Idylls of the King and other Poems' published by Henry S. King & Co., 1874-75). Each photograph is mounted on bluish mounts with gilt borders. |
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| Literary reference | 'Illustrations to Tennyson's Idylls of the King, and other poems', vol. 1, by Julia Margaret Cameron. London: Henry S. King & Co., 1875. |
| Summary | In 1874 Alfred Tennyson, the Poet Laureate, invited Cameron to make photographic illustrations to Idylls of the King, his series of narrative poems based on the legends of King Arthur. After her large photographs were published as small, wood-cut copies, Cameron decided to produce an edition illustrated by original photographic prints accompanied by hand-written extracts from the poems printed in facsimile. She claimed to have made as many as 245 exposures to arrive at the 25 she finally published in two volumes in 1874 and 1875. |
| Associated object | 84:1-1970 (text) |
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| Collection | |
| Accession number | 84-1970 |
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| Record created | July 1, 2009 |
| Record URL |
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