19thC; Hawarden C, D 573, 5 Princes Gardens, Clementina, c. 1862-63

Sepia photograph, mounted in green card, showing a young woman standing beside a window and raising her ams high to press her hands against the wall.

Given by Lady Clementina Tottenham

From departmental notes

'Clementina, Lady Hawarden (Untitled) Photographic Study (or) Study from Life (D.573) c.1862-c.1863 5 Princes Gardens, interior: first floor, front: left window (net curtains drawn back): screen: floor-boards: Clementina (left profile), in fancy dress (blouse and long skirt, with sash), standing, resting head on right arm, both arms raised, hands clasped, leaning on screen. Visible (faintly) through window: balustrade; houses east side of Princes Gardens. Inscription (verso): No 3. 150 x 118 mm PH 457-1968:454 Literature: ed. Graham avenden, Clementina Lady Hawarden, 1974, p.62 (reversed). Microfilm: 3.19.337 The Golden Age of British Photography (travelli exhibition), Victoria and Albert Museum, 1984-8 Pre-Raphaelite Photography (travelling exhibition), Manchester City Art Gallery, 1986- Because Lady Hawarden concentrated on photographing her daughters in and around their home to the near exclusion of other subjects and settings after 1859, casual modern-day observers have concluded that she was something of a mysterious recluse. However, her family and friends did not describe her as withdrawn. Rejlander found her 'straightforward'• [a.G. R(ejlander), 'In Memoriam', British Journal of Photography, 12:38 (27 January 1865).] It has also recently been suggested that her work is in keeping with the mid-Victorian preoccupation with the conflicts between interior and exterior or between the haves and the have-nots. Here the distraught and yearning attitude of Clementina's outstretched arms is reinforced by the proximity of a closed window. To one modern observer, Lady Hawarden's photographs of such scenes are a 'full expression of introversion and desired escape from the wallpapered rooms and French windows imprisoning [her] sitters. I [Elizabeth Anne McCauley, Likenesses: Portrait Photography in Europe 1850-1870, Albuquerque, New Mexico 1981, 51.]--However, it seems clear when Lady Hawarden's work is considered as a whole that notions of introversion or imprisonment are far from her intended meaning. It has also recently been suggested that her work is in keeping with the mid-Victorian preoccupation with the conflicts between interior and exterior or between the haves and the have-nots. Here the distraught and yearning attitude of Clementina's outstretched arms is reinforced by the proximity of a closed window. To one modern observer, Lady Hawarden's photographs of such scenes are a 'full expression of introversion and desired escape from the wallpapered rooms and French windows imprisoning [her] sitters. I [Elizabeth Anne McCauley, Likenesses: Portrait Photography in Europe 1850-1870, Albuquerque, New Mexico 1981, 51.]--However, it seems clear when Lady Hawarden's work is considered as a whole that notions of introversion or imprisonment are far from her intended meaning.'

Reason For Production: Exhibition
Reason For Production: Retail

Here a young woman stands beside a window in an otherwise empty room. She raises her hands high to press them against a wall. The shadow of her body on the wall pushes back in reply.

This dramatic photograph has other parallels in Lady Hawarden’s work. When exhibiting her photographs she described them simply as ‘Photographic Studies’ or ‘Studies from Life’. The ‘study’ suggests a work that is not finished or complete, but preparatory. Photographs such as this one may make use of that provisional status to try out a pose and an effect of light. They do not aspire to completeness of composition and fully formed expression.

Hawarden’s contemporary, the photographer Oscar Rejlander, made a large tableau in 1857 from many photographs printed together. He called it The Two Ways of Life. He exhibited the individual figure studies separately. Perhaps Lady Hawarden gained a certain artistic freedom from the idea of the ‘Study’. In gesture and lighting, her photographs are more freely inventive than those of most other photographers of her time.

457:454-1968