A new exhibition, featuring the 19th-century queen of early photography, Julia Margaret Cameron, opened at the National Trust’s Fox Talbot Museum in Lacock in November.
'Idylls of the King' shows 24 images she took in 1874 at the request of the then poet laureate, Alfred Lord Tennyson, to illustrate his series of poems of the same name, which were based on the timeless legends of King Arthur and his court.
The stories of King Arthur have been told for centuries, embellished and expanded by various English and French authors, but the idealized images that Cameron created embody the look and feel of late-19th century romantic aesthetics.
She published her own edition of the photographs taken for 'Idylls of the King' which contained two dozen original photographs and sold for six guineas. Only around 12 copies survive. The images from the Fox Talbot Museum exhibition have been taken from a ‘miniature’ edition owned by the Julia Margaret Cameron Trust, of which only four copies are known to exist.
Roger Watson, Curator of the Fox Talbot Museum, said:
'Julia Margaret Cameron’s work has had a lasting influence over styles of portraiture to this day. Her portraits are known for their striking lighting, subtle costuming and tight composition. In style they are closely related to the Pre-Raphaelite painting of the period with a melancholy, romantic feel that works perfectly to illustrate the courtly tragedy of the Arthurian tales.
'Although she only worked in photography for 12 years, her legacy is huge. Along with Lacock’s William Henry Fox Talbot, the inventor of photography on paper, she can truly be referred to as one of the creators of the use of photography in books and her impact on studio portraiture is still acknowledged by photographers in the 21st century.'
Julia Margaret Cameron herself said of her work on 'Idylls of the King'; 'I longed to arrest all beauty that came before me, and at length the longing has been satisfied.'
The exhibition runs from 11 November 2007 to 29 June 2008 at the Fox Talbot Museum in Lacock. It is open weekends only until 23 February and then is open seven days a week.
This exhibition is courtesy of the Julia Margaret Cameron Trust.
© Julia Margaret Cameron Trust
About the artist
- Julia Margaret Cameron (1815–1879) began her career in photography at the age of 48 when her daughter gave her a camera for her birthday.
- One of her famous sitters was her neighbour on the Isle of Wight, Alfred Lord Tennyson. His fondness for her stylised and romantic allegorical images gave him the idea of asking her to create photographs to illustrate his group of narrative poems entitled 'Idylls of the King'.
- The images were first used to create wood engravings for the illustrations, but dissatisfied with the engravings, Tennyson encouraged Cameron to create an edition illustrated with her original photographs tipped into the volumes.
- Cameron’s career in photography lasted only 12 years. When she and her husband moved to Sri Lanka in 1876, she lost her connection with her crowd of artists and poets and she seems to have lost interest in photography.
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