The South West Wind
Medium
Albumen silver print from glass negative
Dimensions
Image: 9 15/16 × 8 1/2 in. (25.3 × 21.6 cm) Sheet: 9 15/16 × 8 1/2 in. (25.3 × 21.6 cm) Mount: 17 1/16 in. × 12 11/16 in. (43.4 × 32.3 cm)
Classification
Photographs
Department
Photographs
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Harris Brisbane Dick Fund, 1941
Accession Number
41.21.19
Tags
Art Historical Context
Julia Margaret Cameron's *The South West Wind*1864) is a captivating albumen silver print from a negative, a pioneering photographic process that produced richly toned images with fine detail and subtle gradations. Measuring nearly 10 by 8.5 inches, this work exemplifies Cameron's mastery of 19th-century photography, where she transformed the medium into an art form evoking painting and poetry. The image likely personifies the wind through a dramatic female figure, her hair and drapery billowing in ethereal motion, tagged simply as "Women" to highlight its feminine allegory. Cameron, a Britis...
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...