Photographic Study thumbnail 1
Photographic Study thumbnail 2
Image of Gallery in South Kensington
Request to view at the Prints & Drawings Study Room, level F , Case X, Shelf 33H, Box XXI

Photographic Study

Photograph
1857-1864 (made)
Artist/Maker
Place of origin

This photograph shows the photographer’s daughter, Clementina (born 1847), posed in fancy dress in the light-filled interior of the family home at Princes Gardens, London. The image is typical of the highly sensuous and evocative interior scenes that Lady Hawarden produced. She often used props such as mirrors, drapes and rugs and dressed her children in theatrical costume. In this photograph, as in many others, the sitter is posed to imply a narrative that is not fully revealed. Hawarden was working at a time when photography was becoming commercialised, but amateurs such as she were free to explore unusual possibilities of light and subject matter.

Collodion-on-glass negatives were introduced in 1851. Collodion is a light-sensitive solution of ether and guncotton (cotton steeped in nitric and sulphuric acids). It was poured onto glass pates and had to be exposed in the camera while still wet. This process yielded a high level of detail in the image.

Virtually the whole of Lady Hawarden’s extensive corpus survives thanks to the donation by her granddaughter, Clementina, Lady Tottenham, of 776 prints to the Victoria and Albert Museum in 1939. Judging from the torn corners of many of the prints (some of them subsequently trimmed with scissors), the prints originally belonged in albums: why they were removed remains unknown.


Object details

Categories
Object type
Titles
  • Photographic Study (assigned by artist)
  • Study from Life (assigned by artist)
Materials and techniques
Albumen print from collodion-on-glass negative
Brief description
Photograph of a girl in an interior
Physical description
Photograph of a girl in an interior

5 Princes Gardens, interior: first floor, front: right window: screen: floor-boards: Clementina, in fancy dress (eighteenth-century shepherdess style), eyes up, seated, leaning left on screen, hands crossed on breast. French-style side-table on right. Visible through window: balustrade.
Dimensions
  • Height: 23.8cm
  • Width: 23.5cm
Credit line
Given by Lady Clementina Tottenham
Historical context
From departmental notes

'Clementina, Lady Hawarden (Untitled) Photographic Study (or) Study from Life (D.627) c.1863-c.1864 5 Princes Gardens, interior: first floor, front: right window: screen: floor-boards: Clementina, in fancy dress (eighteenth-century shepherdess style), eyes up, seated, leaning left on screen, hands crossed on breast. French-style side-table on right. Visible through window: balustrade. 236 x 241 mm PH 372-1947 Series 121 Literature: Microfilm: 3.18.135'
Subjects depicted
Place depicted
Summary
This photograph shows the photographer’s daughter, Clementina (born 1847), posed in fancy dress in the light-filled interior of the family home at Princes Gardens, London. The image is typical of the highly sensuous and evocative interior scenes that Lady Hawarden produced. She often used props such as mirrors, drapes and rugs and dressed her children in theatrical costume. In this photograph, as in many others, the sitter is posed to imply a narrative that is not fully revealed. Hawarden was working at a time when photography was becoming commercialised, but amateurs such as she were free to explore unusual possibilities of light and subject matter.

Collodion-on-glass negatives were introduced in 1851. Collodion is a light-sensitive solution of ether and guncotton (cotton steeped in nitric and sulphuric acids). It was poured onto glass pates and had to be exposed in the camera while still wet. This process yielded a high level of detail in the image.

Virtually the whole of Lady Hawarden’s extensive corpus survives thanks to the donation by her granddaughter, Clementina, Lady Tottenham, of 776 prints to the Victoria and Albert Museum in 1939. Judging from the torn corners of many of the prints (some of them subsequently trimmed with scissors), the prints originally belonged in albums: why they were removed remains unknown.
Bibliographic reference
Literature: Microfilm: 3.18.135
Collection
Accession number
372-1947

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Record createdJanuary 29, 2004
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