On loan
  • On short term loan out for exhibition

The grandmother

Photograph
1865 (photographed)
Artist/Maker
Place of origin

Julia Margaret Cameron's mentor and friend, the artist G.F. Watts wrote to Cameron, ‘Please do not send me valuable mounted copies … send me any … defective unmounted impressions, I shall be able to judge just as well & shall be just as much charmed with success & shall not feel that I am taking money from you.’ This is one of approximately 67 in the V&A's collection that was recently discovered to have belonged to him. Many are unique, which suggests that Cameron was not fully satisfied with them. Some may seem ‘defective’ but others are enhanced by their flaws. All of them contribute to our understanding of Cameron’s working process and the photographs that did meet her standards.

Object details

Categories
Object type
TitleThe grandmother (assigned by artist)
Materials and techniques
Albumen print from wet collodion glass negative
Brief description
Photograph by Julia Margaret Cameron, 'The grandmother' (sitters unknown girl, Sarah Groves), albumen print, 1865
Physical description
A photograph of an elderly woman (Sarah Groves) with bonnet and an unknown girl.
Dimensions
  • Image height: 25.5cm
  • Image width: 21.3cm
  • Mount height: 39cm
  • Mount width: 30cm
Style
Credit line
Given by Mrs Margaret Southam, 1941
Subjects depicted
Association
Literary reference'The grandmother', poem by Alfred Tennyson, 1864
Summary
Julia Margaret Cameron's mentor and friend, the artist G.F. Watts wrote to Cameron, ‘Please do not send me valuable mounted copies … send me any … defective unmounted impressions, I shall be able to judge just as well & shall be just as much charmed with success & shall not feel that I am taking money from you.’ This is one of approximately 67 in the V&A's collection that was recently discovered to have belonged to him. Many are unique, which suggests that Cameron was not fully satisfied with them. Some may seem ‘defective’ but others are enhanced by their flaws. All of them contribute to our understanding of Cameron’s working process and the photographs that did meet her standards.
Bibliographic references
  • Ford, Colin and Cox, Julian. Julia Margaret Cameron: The Complete Photographs. London: Thames and Hudson, 2003. Cat. no. 1074, p.445, ill.
  • Taken from Photography Department index card catalogue
  • Ford, Colin. The Cameron Collection. London, 1975, p.56.
Collection
Accession number
PH.246-1982

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Record createdMarch 6, 2009
Record URL
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