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Image of Gallery in South Kensington
Request to view at the Prints & Drawings Study Room, level F , Case X, Shelf 311, Box S

The Angel in the House

Photograph
1873 (photographed)
Artist/Maker
Place of origin

This photograph illustrates Coventry Patmore's poem 'The Angel in the House', which was first published in 1854. The poem, a celebration of married love, proved enormously popular and went through many subsequent editions. Another version of this photograph (now in Liverpool City Libraries) is inscribed 'For Coventry Patmore'.

The photographer's son, Henry Cameron, probably oversaw the printing of the photograph (by the carbon process, perhaps by the Autotype Co.) after his mother's death.


Object details

Categories
Object type
Titles
  • The Angel in the House (popular title)
  • Emily Peacock (generic title)
Materials and techniques
Carbon print (from wet collodion glass negative?)
Brief description
Photograph by Julia Margaret Cameron, 'Emily Peacock' (also known as 'The Angel in the House'), possibly printed by Henry Herschel Hay Cameron, carbon print, 1873
Physical description
A photograph of a woman (Emily Peacock) from the shoulders up, with her left shoulder tilted towards the camera and the subject looking off to the left of the image.
Dimensions
  • Height: 34.5cm
  • Image width: 23.2cm
Style
Marks and inscriptions
Inscribed with title and dated in ink by Julia Margaret Cameron. Signed in ink H.H.H. Cameron.
Credit line
Acquired from Mr. and Mrs. Ronald Lindsay, 1972
Object history
The title derives from the poem of this title by Coventry Patmore (1823-96). It was published in four instalments, 1856-62. The work is in a wooden frame which is apparently original and bears a maker's label from Ceylon (now Sri Lanka). The exhibition 'Julia Margaret Cameron's Women' was framed by the Art Institute of Chicago in facsimiles of this frame.
Subjects depicted
Literary referenceCoventry Patmore: 'The Angel in the House'
Summary
This photograph illustrates Coventry Patmore's poem 'The Angel in the House', which was first published in 1854. The poem, a celebration of married love, proved enormously popular and went through many subsequent editions. Another version of this photograph (now in Liverpool City Libraries) is inscribed 'For Coventry Patmore'.

The photographer's son, Henry Cameron, probably oversaw the printing of the photograph (by the carbon process, perhaps by the Autotype Co.) after his mother's death.
Bibliographic references
  • Ford, Colin and Cox, Julian. Julia Margaret Cameron: The Complete Photographs. London: Thames and Hudson, 2003. Cat. no. 372, p.237, ill.
  • Wolf, Sylvia (et al). Julia Margaret Cameron's Women. London: The Institute of Chicago and London: Yale University Press, 1998. Repro., plate 2, p. 111.
Collection
Accession number
E.2309-1997

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Record createdNovember 12, 2002
Record URL
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