Victorian Giants: The Birth of Art Photography

Lovely exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery looking at the work of the four main Victorian photography pioneers in England, Julia Margaret Cameron, Lewis Carroll, Lady Clementina Hawarden and Oscar Reylander.

The show was excellent and pointing out the links between these photographers and how they learnt from and influenced each other. The Duchess of Cambridge, the patron of the gallery, had written some of the labels as her undergraduate thesis had been on these photographers. The show was arranged by subject to emphasis the thematic links and all the works were shown as vintage prints.
The pictures of children were the most engaging but the show was quick to point out that all of Carroll’s were taken in the presence of a parent or governess and that only half his output was of children. Of course there were the famous pictures of Alice Lidell but I found Reylander’s were more sweet and sentimental including his version of the Raphael angels which was bought by Prince Albert and I so wanted to know what happened to Cameron’s model Freddy Gould, the son of a labourer.
I’d like to have seen more work by Hawarden. I saw an exhibition of her work in Dublin a few years ago and was entranced by her pictures of her daughter’s in tableaux all within a domestic setting.
 
I loved the idea that at one point Cameron and Carroll held an exhibition in her living room, how I’d have loved to be there!  

Closed on 20 May 2018

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