Mrs. Herbert Duckworth
April 1867
Medium
Albumen print
Dimensions
34.2 × 26.3 cm (13 1/2 × 10 3/8 in.)
Classification
albumen silver print
Department
Photography and Media
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
157056
Art Historical Context
Julia Margaret Cameron’s 1867 portrait of Mrs. Herbert Duckworth captures the quiet dignity of its subject through the artist’s signature soft-focus approach. Working in the early decades of photography, Cameron transformed what was still a novel medium into a vehicle for expressive, almost painterly portraiture. Mrs. Herbert Duckworth—later known as Julia Stephen and mother of Virginia Woolf—was part of the intellectual and artistic circles Cameron frequently photographed, lending the image both personal warmth and historical resonance. The albumen silver print, the most common photographic ...
About the Artist
Julia Margaret Cameron · 1815–1879
Julia Margaret Cameron (1815–1879), born Julia Margaret Pattle in Calcutta, India, emerged as one of the 19th century's most innovative photographers despite beginning her career at age 48. The daughter of East India Company official James Pattle and French aristocrat Adeline de l'Etang, she was educated in France from 1818 to 1834 alongside her six surviving sisters, renowned for their beauty and...