Julia Margaret Cameron (Teil 2)

In 1850 the Camerons moved to Freshwater on the Isle of Wight in southern England and named their house "Dimbola" in memory of Ceylon. Since her husband traveled a lot on his plantations in Ceylon, JMC often felt alone. That's why in 1863 her daugther gave her a wooden panel camera with darkroom equipment.
JMC immediately began experimenting with the wet collodium process, which was very time-consuming. At this point, JMC was already 48 years old. Her first models are her own children and the neighborhood children.
With the close-up, JMC opened a new territoy for portrait photography. JMC always tried to bring out what was distinctive and unique about a person, which often led to extremely long modeling sessions.
The "Dimbola" soon became an important cultural place - similar to her sister Sarah Prinsep's Little Holland House in London. Many personalities from art and science came, including: John Herschel, Charles Darwin, Alfred Tennyson, Henry Taylor, William Holman Hunt, Robert Browning, Thomas Carlyle, Joseph Joachim and William Michael Rosetti.
One of her constant models was her maid, Mary Ann Hillier, whom JMC put on various disguises. Friends and relatives also made often themselves available as models.
JMC belonged to the Anglican Church and created a series of images depicting the Blessed Virgin Mary and the baby Jesus, with Mary Ann Hillier mostly portraying the Blessed Mother. JMC believed that religious art could be revitalized through photography.
JMC was very familar with the legends of the Middle Ages. She also responded to a request from Alfred Tennyson to illustrate his poem cycle "Idylls of King" (Artus legend) with photographs. One of her two important mentors was John Herschel, whom JMC had known since 1836 and to whom she continuously reported on her photographic progress. The painter G. F. Watts was also one of her close confidants.
JMC is described as a determined and energetic artist who often let her models sit until she was satisfied with their result; which prevented many from sitting as their model.
One of her favorite models was her niece Julia Jackson, the daughter of JMC's sister Mia Jackson, of whom she made over 50 photographs. Julia Jackson married the lawyer Herbert Duckworth in 1867, but soon became a widow. As Leslie Stephen applied for her, she first asked her aunt for advice, who encouraged her to marry him. From this marriage came Adeline Virginia, who later became known as a much-acclaimed author of classical modernism under the name of Virginia Woolf.
In 1864, JMC exhibited in the renowned London gallery "Colnaghi" and already had her works protected by copyright. In 1865 JMC received a solo exhibition at the South Kensington Museum, now the V&A Museum. In 1868, the director at the time, Sir Henry Cole, even gave her own rooms in the museum for a portrait studio.
In 1875, both JMC's health and the Camerons's financial situation deteriorated. Therefore they left England forever and retreated to Ceylon, Kalutara. Julia Margaret Cameron died there on January 26, 1879, Charles Hay Cameron followed her on May 5, 1880. The shared burial site is in the cemetery of St. Mary's Anglican Church in Bogawantalawa, today Sri Lanka.
The prologue discusses JMC's only exhibition in Austria, which took place in the "Die Bruecke" gallery in 1978. Also mentioned is the National Art Collectors Fund, which managed to keep the Herschel album in England; after the American art collector Sam Wagstaff bought the album at Sotheby's in 1974. The album is now in the V&A Museum in London.

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Wie immer hervorragende Zusammenstellung und professionelle Erklärungen, danke

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Danke für das Lob! Und für Deine große Aufmerksamkeit, die Du meinen Arbeiten schon seit Jahrzehnten entgegenbringst.