2d. Version of Study after the Elgin Marbles
- Object:
- Place of origin:
England, Great Britain (photographed)
- Date:
- Artist/Maker:
Julia Margaret Cameron, born 1815 - died 1879 (photographer)
- Materials and Techniques:
Albumen print from wet collodion glass negative
- Credit Line:
- Museum number:
- Gallery location:
Prints & Drawings Study Room, level C, case TECHS
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Julia Margaret Cameron's career as a photographer began in 1863 when her daughter gave her a camera. Cameron began photographing everyone in sight. Because of the newness of photography as a practice, she was free to make her own rules and not be bound to convention. The kinds of images being made at the time did not interest Cameron. She was interested in capturing another kind of photographic truth. Not one dependent on accuracy of sharp detail, but one that depicted the emotional state of her sitter.
Cameron liked the soft focus portraits and the streak marks on her negatives, choosing to work with these irregularities, making them part of her pictures. Although at the time Cameron was seen as an unconventional and experimental photographer, her images have a solid place in the history of photography.
Most of Cameron's photographs are portraits. She used members of her family as sitters and made photographs than concentrated on their faces. She was interested in conveying their natural beauty, often asking female sitters to let down their hair so as to show them in a way that they were not accustomed to presenting themselves. In addition to making stunning and evocative portraits both of male and female subjects, Cameron also staged tableaux and posed her sitters in situations that simulated allegorical paintings.
Physical description
A photograph of two seated woman, in flowing light coloured dresses, one facing the camera (Cyllena Wilson), the other (Mary Hillier) in profile, leaning against her.
Place of Origin
England, Great Britain (photographed)
Date
1867 (photographed)
Artist/maker
Julia Margaret Cameron, born 1815 - died 1879 (photographer)
Materials and Techniques
Albumen print from wet collodion glass negative
Dimensions
Height: 58.2 cm, Width: 46.5 cm
Object history note
Nevinson Bequest, 1990
Descriptive line
Photograph by Julia Margaret Cameron, '2d. Version of Study after the Elgin Marbles' (sitters Cyllena Wilson, Mary Hillier), albumen print, 1867
Exhibition History
The Cult of Beauty: The Aesthetic Movement 1860-1900 (Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco 18/02/2012-17/07/2012)
The Cult of Beauty: The Aesthetic Movement 1860-1900 (Musée d'Orsay 13/09/2011-15/01/2012)
The Cult of Beauty: The Aesthetic Movement 1860-1900 (Victoria and Albert Museum 02/04/2011-17/07/2011)
Labels and date
British Galleries:
The photographer, Julia Margaret Cameron, experimented with different attitudes and poses of her models.The poses of the two figures in this photograph imitate the poses of two headless figures from the sculptures in the British Museum known as the Elgin Marbles. These marbles were widely copied and were a source of inspiration for artists. [27/03/2003]
Object Type
Albumen prints were the first glossy, coated photographic prints. They were in general use from about 1855 to 1890. They were made from thin paper, which was first coated with a mixture of whisked albumen (egg white) and salt, then sensitised with silver nitrate. This print was made from a glass negative.
Ownership & Use
Julia Margaret Cameron (1815-1879) printed photographs to show in fine art exhibitions and gave copies to family, friends and sitters. In 1865 the South Kensington Museum (now the V&A) became the first museum to exhibit and purchase her works. That same year Cameron sent 34 photographs as a gift to the collection. Her photographs were deposited in the Art Library and in the Circulation Department (which distributed artworks and teaching materials to tour throughout the country). However the Museum's Prints, Drawings and Paintings Department acquired this particular photograph in the 1990s.
People
The two people in the photograph are Cyllena Wilson (on the left) and Mary Ryan (on the right). Wilson was the daughter of a missionary orphaned at 15 and adopted by Cameron. Later, in 1870, she ran away from the Camerons' home on the Isle of Wight. Ryan was a London beggar who had approached Cameron. The photographer was struck by her beauty and offered her a job as her housemaid while also employing her as a model.
Materials
Photographic paper
Techniques
Albumen process
Subjects depicted
Sculpture; Hillier, Mary Ann; Wilson, Cyllena Margaret
Categories
Photographs
Collection code
PDP
