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Gabriela Cunninghame Graham

Photograph
ca. 1890 (photographed)
Artist/Maker
Place of origin

Hollyer was the photographer of choice for the artistic set of the late 19th century. His Portraits of Many Persons of Note fills three volumes with over 300 portraits, a pictorial Who's Who of late Victorian and Edwardian celebrities. Gabriela Cunninghame Graham was a poet and water-colourist who contributed to the Yellow Book in the 1890s, befriending many literary giants of the late 19th century including Oscar Wilde and W.B. Yeats. She claimed to be of Chilean-Spanish-French origin, speaking with a Spanish accent. However, after her death this was proved to have been a fabrication. As a youth, she had run away from her family home in Masham, Yorkshire, where she was born the daughter of a local English doctor. It is unclear if her husband, the Scottish socialist politician Robert Bontine Cunninghame Graham (1852-1936) was aware of her double identity but he was deeply devoted to her. They are both buried at Inchmahome Priory on the Lake of Menteith, also known as Loch Inchmahome.

Object details

Categories
Object type
Titles
  • Gabriela Cunninghame Graham (generic title)
  • Portraits of many persons of note photographed by Frederick Hollyer in three volumes, vol. III (assigned by artist)
Materials and techniques
Platinum print
Brief description
Portrait of Gabriela Cunninghame Graham (died 1906) Portraits of many persons of note photographed by Frederick Hollyer, Vol. 3, platinum print, ca. 1890
Physical description
Portrait of Mrs Graham sitting behind a table on which she rests her arms and looks off into the distance. To her left stands a vase of flowers on the table.
Dimensions
  • Height: 11cm
  • Width: 14.2cm
Credit line
Given by Eleanor M. Hollyer
Subject depicted
Summary
Hollyer was the photographer of choice for the artistic set of the late 19th century. His Portraits of Many Persons of Note fills three volumes with over 300 portraits, a pictorial Who's Who of late Victorian and Edwardian celebrities. Gabriela Cunninghame Graham was a poet and water-colourist who contributed to the Yellow Book in the 1890s, befriending many literary giants of the late 19th century including Oscar Wilde and W.B. Yeats. She claimed to be of Chilean-Spanish-French origin, speaking with a Spanish accent. However, after her death this was proved to have been a fabrication. As a youth, she had run away from her family home in Masham, Yorkshire, where she was born the daughter of a local English doctor. It is unclear if her husband, the Scottish socialist politician Robert Bontine Cunninghame Graham (1852-1936) was aware of her double identity but he was deeply devoted to her. They are both buried at Inchmahome Priory on the Lake of Menteith, also known as Loch Inchmahome.
Collection
Accession number
7881-1938

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Record createdSeptember 9, 2004
Record URL
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