Déjatch Alámayou, King Theodore's Son
July 1868
Medium
Albumen silver print from glass negative
Dimensions
Image: 29.2 x 23.3 cm (11 1/2 x 9 3/16 in.)
Classification
Photographs
Department
Photographs
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Gilman Collection, Gift of The Howard Gilman Foundation, 2005
Accession Number
2005.100.239
Tags
Art Historical Context
In July 1868, pioneering photographer Julia Margaret Cameron captured this poignant portrait of Déjatch Alámayou, the young son of Ethiopia's Emperor Tewod II (also known as King Theodore). months earlier, British forces had defeated Tewodros at the Battle of Magdala during the Anglo-Ethiopian War, and the orphaned prince—then about seven years old—was brought to England as a ward of Queen Victoria. Cameron's image, taken soon after his arrival, depicts the boy in thoughtful profile, cradling a doll that underscores his childlike vulnerability amid geopolitical upheaval. Rendered as an albume...
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...