Case 21 2012/13: a Julia Margaret Cameron Photo Album
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Case 21 2012/13: A Julia Margaret Cameron Photo Album Expert adviser’s statement Reviewing Committee Secretary’s note: Please note that any illustrations referred to have not been reproduced on the Arts Council England Website SUMMARY OF WORK Julia Margaret Cameron (1815-1879) – (Compiler) THE "SIGNOR 1857" ALBUM, 1857 Sotheby’s Sale L12408, 12 December, 2012, Lot 65) 35 photographs by various photographers, including Cameron, Reginald Southey, Rejlander, and 2nd Earl Brownlow, all mounted individually on within an album (one leaf now loose), comprising 3 salted paper prints and 32 albumen prints, 24 images with later inscriptions in pencil by Mary Seton Watts identifying the sitters and occasionally with other notes, one inscription in ink by George Frederic Watts, a few annotations by Julia Margaret Cameron, and with further pencil inscriptions in two further hands, one providing children’s ages, the other identifying sitters, also with a later inscription on the front pastedown giving an (incorrect) summary of the content, four stubs, one page with adhesive residue where a photograph or other insertion has apparently been removed, 35 pages, plus blanks, 4to (246 x 197mm), green morocco, marbled endpapers, gilt borders and gilt stamped on upper cover “Signor.1857”. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Julia Margaret Cameron (1815-1879) was one of the greatest nineteenth century artists in any medium and one of the greatest photographers that Britain has ever produced. She took her first photograph in 1864 but was actively involved with photography prior to this, compiling a number of albums. The Signor 1857 album is the earliest of eight recorded photographic albums assembled by Cameron in the period before she took up photography herself. Almost certainly compiled by Cameron as a gift to her friend, the artist G.F.Watts, the album anticipates the photographs she would later make with her own camera, mixing images of the famous with the familial to create a celebration of art, photography, family and friendship. It contains work by several different photographers (some unattributed), including 15 unique images. The Signor 1857 Album is a hugely important piece of evidence in explaining how Cameron, a middle-aged woman with no previous experience of visual art-making became one of the most celebrated of photographers. By connecting her life and her fascination with photography to the social circles and artistic practice of G.F.Watts, the Signor 1857 Album illuminates the historical moment when originality became the defining hallmark of Cameron’s art. It clearly meets Waverley Criterion 3 since it is of outstanding significance for the study of the history of photography. Bibliographic reference: Joanne Lukitsh, ‘Before 1864: Julia Margaret Cameron’s Early Work in Photography’ in Julian Cox and Colin Ford, Julia Margaret Cameron: The Complete Photographs, Los Angeles, The J. Paul Getty Museum, 2003. DETAILED CASE The objection to the export of this album compiled by Julia Margaret Cameron is based on its outstanding significance for the study of Cameron’s work and the history of photography. Julia Margaret Cameron, one of the most celebrated of nineteenth century photographers, didn’t take her first photograph until 1864, when she was nearly fifty years old. In recent years, however, scholars have explored how she was actively involved with photography prior to this. The Signor 1857 album is both an important artefact for the understanding of Cameron’s development as a photographic artist and an important example of how photographs were embedded within avant-garde art-making of the day. The Signor 1857 album is the earliest of eight recorded photographic albums that Cameron compiled before she took up photography for herself - the others being the Lansdowne [UK private collection], SN1859, JHN, [both National Media Museum, UK], Mia [US private collection], Somers-Cocks [UK private collection], MacTier [untraced] and JMC to GFW Albums [US public collection]. The album contains work by several different photographers (some unattributed), including 15 unique images. It anticipates the photographs Cameron would later make for herself. In addition to portraits of the ‘great men’ of her acquaintance, Henry Taylor (no. 13), Alfred Tennyson (no. 15), George Frederic Watts (no. 1) and John Herschel (nos 12 & 31), it contains photographs of her children and her nephews and nieces; this mixing of the famous and the familial would become a hallmark of her photography. The Signor 1857 album is a testament to Cameron’s engagement with the work of G.F. Watts and her growing interest in photography’s place within the fine arts. From the early 1850s, Watts lived with Cameron’s sister Sara and her husband Henry Thoby Prinsep (no. 9) at Little Holland House in Kensington, London. In 1864, Watts would also become the recipient of the first (known) album of photographs that Cameron made with her own camera. ‘Signor’ was the name that Sophia Dalrymple, another of Cameron’s sisters (nos 23 &29), gave to the artist. The album begins with a previously unrecorded and unattributed photographic portrait of Watts by Earl Brownlow followed by a sequence of photographic copies after portrait drawings Watts made during the 1850s, some of the originals for which are currently untraced. Turning the album upside down, there is a second sequence of photographs, this time of photographic portraits from life. Some of the photographs in this ‘back to front’ sequence are unique to the Signor 1857 album. These include two photographs which are almost certainly by Earl Somers, an important figure in the history of photography, to whom no photographs have, until now, been firmly attributed. There is a study of Cameron with all six of her children (previously unrecorded and unique to this album), and a sequence of twelve photographs that appear to have been taken by the same hand in the same setting and which features Tennyson (no. 15), Taylor (no. 13), Cameron herself (no. 21), Sophia Dalrymple (no. 23) [unique to this album], a portrait of Cameron’s nieces Julia and Mary Jackson (no. 16) and studies featuring Cameron’s sons Eugene, Ewen, Hardinge, Charles and Henry Cameron. Cameron’s personal input is very much in evidence. There are cropping instructions on the reverse of a couple of the prints made in Cameron’s handwriting. There are also numbers written in pencil on the reverse of the prints which suggest that the photographs were inserted according to a pre- conceived sequence. The numbering is also in Cameron’s distinctive looping hand which seems to confirm that the album was, in effect, authored or ‘curated’ by her. One may also speculate that Cameron was possibly involved in suggesting the composition of some of these images. Despite there being a large published body of scholarship on Cameron as photographer, key early photographs relating to her remain unattributed. The Signor 1857 album hints at a direct connection between Cameron’s own practice and contemporary commercial photography, a connection that has generally been overlooked by Cameron scholars. Cameron is one of the most documented of early photographers; it is now time to consider in full the conditions of her late blossoming into an artist in photography. The Signor 1857 Album is a hugely important and significant piece of evidence in the story of how, in mid-Victorian England, a middle-aged woman with no previous experience of visual art-making became one of the most celebrated exponents of picture-making by photography. By connecting Cameron’s life and her fascination with photography to the social circles and artistic practice of George Frederic Watts, the Signor 1857 Album illuminates the historical moment when originality became the defining hallmark of Cameron’s serious art. This album still holds many secrets which are yet to be revealed. Further study in conjunction with the other early albums, in particular those in the collection of the National Media Museum, would significantly contribute to understanding Cameron’s aesthetic development prior to owning a camera. Such research would be particularly timely as we approach the bi-centenary of Cameron’s birth in 2015. Appendix – List of Photographs in the Album: 1. John William Spencer Brownlow Egerton-Cust, 2nd Earl Brownlow, [George Frederic Watts, ¾ profile before the doors of the North Porch at Ashridge, Hertfordshire], 1865, albumen print (vignetted), 75 x 69mm, previously unrecorded 2. Unidentified photographer, [Photograph of an untraced pencil study by G F Watts of Adeline Jackson), 1850s], mid to late 1850s, 92 x 74mm [other copies: Lansdowne Album (private collection, UK), Julia Hay Norman album (hereafter JHN, National Media Museum, UK)] 3. Unidentified photographer, [Photograph of an untraced chalk study by G F Watts of Julia Margaret Cameron, probably 1852], mid to late 1850s, albumen print (cropped to oval), 203 x 168mm, [other copies: Lansdowne Album, Sibella Norman 1859 Album (hereafter SN 1859 , National Media Museum, UK), Mia Album (private collection, USA)] 4. Unidentified photographer, [Photograph of an untraced pencil study by G F Watts of Emma Brandling, later Lady Lilford], mid to late 1850s, albumen print (cropped to oval), 108 x 87mm, previously unrecorded 5. Unidentified photographer, [Photograph of an untraced painting by G F Watts of Julia Hay Norman, née Cameron, probably early 1850s], mid to late 1850s, albumen print, 101 x 80mm [other copies: SN1859] 6. Unidentified photographer, [Photograph of colour chalk drawing by G.F. Watts of Virginia Julian Dalrymple, 1853], 1853 to late 1850s, albumen print, 104 x 90mm, previously unrecorded 7. Unidentified photographer, [Photograph of an untraced pencil study by G.F.Watts of Lady Charlotte Guest, probably 1854], 1854-late 1850s, albumen print, 140 x 118mm, previously unrecorded 8. Unidentified photographer, [Photograph of an untraced chalk study by G F Watts of Sir Ivor Guest, 1857], c. 1857, albumen print, 140 x 119mm, previously unrecorded 9.