The Turtle Doves
Photograph
1864 (photographed)
1864 (photographed)
Artist/Maker | |
Place of origin |
Julia Margaret 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.
This is perhaps the most sensual of Cameron’s photographs of embracing children. The sitters are the same sisters, Alice and Elizabeth Keown, that appear in The Double Star. Cameron’s inscription of the title on the back of the print is visible on the front.
This is perhaps the most sensual of Cameron’s photographs of embracing children. The sitters are the same sisters, Alice and Elizabeth Keown, that appear in The Double Star. Cameron’s inscription of the title on the back of the print is visible on the front.
Object details
Categories | |
Object type | |
Title | The Turtle Doves (assigned by artist) |
Materials and techniques | Albumen print from wet collodion glass negative |
Brief description | Photograph by Julia Margaret Cameron, 'The Turtle Doves' (Alice Keown, Elizabeth Keown), albumen print, 1864 |
Physical description | Photograph of two young children (Alice and Elizabeth Keown), their hair loose and shoulders bare, embracing. |
Dimensions |
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Style | |
Marks and inscriptions | 'The Turtle Doves' (Inscribed on verso in ink by JMC at bottom edge.) |
Gallery label | Julia Margaret Cameron: A Bicentenary Exhibition
The Turtle Doves
1864
This is perhaps the most sensual of Cameron’s photographs of embracing children. The sitters are the same sisters, Alice and Elizabeth Keown, that appear in The Double Star. Cameron’s inscription of the title on the back of the print is visible on the front.
Given by Mrs Margaret Southam, 1941
Museum no. PH.241-1982
(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 | |
Literary reference | There are several references to turtle doves as sacrificial overings in the Bible. See Luke 2:24. |
Summary | Julia Margaret 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. This is perhaps the most sensual of Cameron’s photographs of embracing children. The sitters are the same sisters, Alice and Elizabeth Keown, that appear in The Double Star. Cameron’s inscription of the title on the back of the print is visible on the front. |
Bibliographic references |
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Collection | |
Accession number | PH.241-1982 |
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Record created | June 2, 2004 |
Record URL |
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