Two Victorian women in the isolation of their own homes created portraits and tableaux. From 1857- 1864, Clementina Viscountess Hawarden made so-called "Studies from Life," which have far more significance than their general title would imply. A more widely recognized contemporary artist, who began her photographic endeavors a short year after Hawarden's ceased, Julia Margaret Cameron produced images which have themes sympathetic to those within "Studies from Life." Photography began as a source of entertainment for these ladies.
[...] An Outlet For The Internal: Photographs Reflecting The Desires of Clementina Hawarden and Julia Margaret Cameron Two Victorian women in the isolation of their own homes created portraits and tableaux. From 1857- 1864, Clementina Viscountess Hawarden made so- called “Studies from which have far more significance than their general title would imply. A more widely recognized contemporary artist, who began her photographic endeavors a short year after Hawarden's ceased, Julia Margaret Cameron produced images which have themes sympathetic to those within “Studies from Life.” Photography began as a source of entertainment for these ladies. [...]
[...] From April 1867, there is the image she titles Favorite Picture of All of My Work, My Niece Julia;” from 1872, also a portrait of Julia Jackson she titles Beautiful Vision.” The sense of ownership in the titling through the repetition of as also found in Ewen's Bride (God's Gift to 1869, aids to reveal how much of herself, of her obsession with immortal beauty she has put into these images. In Hawarden's photographic studies it is less clear what part of herself the artist has put into her images, what inner urge is being projected; there are no hints given by titles as the images are uncaptioned. [...]
[...] Through photography, she enables herself to “give expression to what the sitter's language can that is, her own feeling of desire for an immortalized beauty (Olson). She believes that her “whole soul [must] endeavor to do its duty towards [her sitters] in recording faithfully the greatness of the inner as well as the features of the outer;” however, she does not recognize the influence of her own on the out-coming meaning of the photograph (Cameron). The telling “aesthetic gaze” seen in such images as Echo” 1868 and 1872, she captures so devotedly from the exterior is not recognized as reflection of her own internal yearning for beauty (Armstrong). [...]
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