Vivien and Merlin

Vivien and Merlin

Vivien and Merlin

Artist:
Julia Margaret Cameron (British (born India), Calcutta 1815–1879 Kalutara, Ceylon)
Date:
September 1874
Medium:
Albumen silver print from glass negative
Dimensions:
31.9 x 28 cm (12 9/16 x 11 in. )
Classification:
Photographs
Credit Line:
David Hunter McAlpin Fund, 1952
Accession Number:

In 1874 Tennyson asked Cameron to make photographic illustrations for a new edition of his Idylls of the King, a recasting of the Arthurian legends. Responding that both knew that “it is immortality to me to be bound up with you,” Cameron willingly accepted the assignment. Costuming family and friends, she made some 245 exposures to arrive at the handful she wanted for the book. Ultimately—and predictably—she was unhappy with the way her photographs looked reduced in scale and translated into wood engravings, and she chose to issue a deluxe edition, at her own risk, that included a dozen full size photographic prints in each of two volumes.

Provenance
Ifan Kyrle Fletcher; Albert E. Marshall, Providence, Rhode Island (from 5/24/1944); (Swann Galleries, New York, February 14, 1952, lot 67); [Richard S. Wormser]

Copyright Image
https://images.metmuseum.org