Image of Gallery in South Kensington
Not currently on display at the V&A
On short term loan out for exhibition

Zoe / Maid of Athens

Photograph
1866 (photographed)
Artist/Maker
Place of origin

In late 1865 Julia Margaret Cameron began using a larger camera, which held a 15 x 12-inch glass negative. Early the next year she wrote to Henry Cole with great enthusiasm – but little modesty – about the new turn she had taken in her work.

Cameron initiated a series of large-scale, close-up heads. These fulfilled her photographic vision, a rejection of ‘mere conventional topographic photography – map-making and skeleton rendering of feature and form’ in favour of a less precise but more emotionally penetrating form of portraiture. Cameron also continued to make narrative and allegorical tableaux, which were larger and bolder than her previous efforts.

The title here refers to Lord Byron’s poem Maid of Athens, ere we part (1810). The soft, moody lighting conjures the poem’s theme of romantic longing. The embroidered cap is probably meant to suggest Greek folk costume. The last line of each stanza of the poem is ‘Zoë mou sas agapo’, which Byron translated as ‘My life, I love you’.

Cameron's friend and mentor, the painter 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 photograph 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
TitleZoe / Maid of Athens (assigned by artist)
Materials and techniques
Albumen print from wet collodion glass negative
Brief description
Photograph by Julia Margaret Cameron, 'Zoe / Maid of Athens' (sitter May Prinsep), albumen print, 1866
Physical description
A photograph of a woman's head (May Prinsep) with flat embroidered cap.
Dimensions
  • Height: 32.0cm
  • Width: 27.2cm
Style
Gallery label
Julia Margaret Cameron: A Bicentenary Exhibition Zoe, maid of Athens 1866 The title here refers to Lord Byron’s poem Maid of Athens, ere we part (1810). The soft, moody lighting conjures the poem’s theme of romantic longing. The embroidered cap is probably meant to suggest Greek folk costume. The last line of each stanza of the poem is ‘Zoë mou sas agapo’, which Byron translated as ‘My life, I love you’. Given by Mrs Margaret Southam, 1941 Museum no. PH.252-1982 (18 November 2014 – 25 September 2016)
Credit line
Given by Mrs Margaret Southam, 1941
Object history
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.
Subjects depicted
Summary
In late 1865 Julia Margaret Cameron began using a larger camera, which held a 15 x 12-inch glass negative. Early the next year she wrote to Henry Cole with great enthusiasm – but little modesty – about the new turn she had taken in her work.

Cameron initiated a series of large-scale, close-up heads. These fulfilled her photographic vision, a rejection of ‘mere conventional topographic photography – map-making and skeleton rendering of feature and form’ in favour of a less precise but more emotionally penetrating form of portraiture. Cameron also continued to make narrative and allegorical tableaux, which were larger and bolder than her previous efforts.

The title here refers to Lord Byron’s poem Maid of Athens, ere we part (1810). The soft, moody lighting conjures the poem’s theme of romantic longing. The embroidered cap is probably meant to suggest Greek folk costume. The last line of each stanza of the poem is ‘Zoë mou sas agapo’, which Byron translated as ‘My life, I love you’.

Cameron's friend and mentor, the painter 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 photograph 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
  • Cox, Julian and Colin Ford, with contributions by Joanne Lukitsh and Philippa Wright. Julia Margaret Cameron: The Complete Photographs. London: Thames & Hudson, in association with The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles and The National Museum of Photography, Film & Television, Bradford, 2003. ISBN: 0-500-54265-1 Cat. no. 392, p. 240
  • Taken from Photography Department index card catalogue
Collection
Accession number
PH.252-1982

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Record createdJune 2, 2003
Record URL
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