Sir John Herschel
April 1867
Medium
Albumen silver print from glass negative
Dimensions
35.9 x 27.9 cm (14 1/8 x 11 in.)
Classification
Photographs
Department
Photographs
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
The Rubel Collection, Gift of William Rubel, 2013
Accession Number
2013.1116
Tags
Art Historical Context
Step into the world of Victorian portraiture with Julia Margaret Cameron's *Sir John Herschel* (April 1867), a masterful albumen silver print from a glass negative, measuring 35.9 x 27.9 cm. Captured at the Metropolitan Museum of Art from The Rubel Collection, this photograph immortalizes the eminent British astronomer, mathematician, and polymath Sir John Herschel, a close friend of Cameron's. Produced during the medium's golden age, the albumen process—using egg whites to bind light-sensitive silver salts—yielded the era's signature rich tones and fine detail, printed from a glass negative f...
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...