A Study of the Beatrice Cenci
September 1870
Medium
Albumen print
Dimensions
Image/paper: 22.5 × 17.6 cm (8 7/8 × 6 15/16 in.); Mount: 38 × 28.3 cm (15 × 11 3/16 in.)
Classification
albumen silver print
Department
Photography and Media
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
20654
Art Historical Context
Julia Margaret Cameron's *A Study of the Beatriceenci* (September 1870) captures the haunting essence of a tragic historical figure through the lens of pioneering photography. Cameron, a leading Victorian photographer, often drew from literature and myth, portraying models in soft-focus portraits that blurred the line between photography and painting. Here, she evokes Beatrice Cenci, 16th-century Italian noblewoman infamous for plotting her abusive father's murder and her subsequent execution—a story romanticized in Percy Bysshe Shelley's play *The Cenci*. The intimate close-up likely features...
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...