Beatrice
Medium
Albumen silver print from glass negative
Dimensions
36.8 x 29.0 cm (14 1/2 x 11 7/16 in. )
Classification
Photographs
Department
Photographs
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
The Elisha Whittelsey Collection, The Elisha Whittelsey Fund, 1969
Accession Number
69.607.9
Tags
Art Historical Context
Julia Margaret Cameron's *Beatrice* (1866) is a captivating albumen silver from a glass negative, measuring 36.8 x 29.0 cm. Captured during the height of Victorian photography, this portrait exemplifies Cameron's pioneering approach to the medium. Working from her home studio on the Isle of Wight, she transformed photography from mere documentation into an artistic expression, often evoking Pre-Raphaelite ideals of beauty and spirituality through soft focus and dramatic lighting. The albumen process, using egg whites to bind light-sensitive silver salts on paper, produced rich tonal depths an...
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...