CAG.2889 Julia Margaret Cameron, Beatrice (Study of Beatrice Cenci), 1866, albumen print, 35.3 x 28.1 cm.

WORK OF THE WEEK!

There’s more than meets the eye in Beatrice (Study of Beatrice Cenci) (1866) by Julia Margaret Cameron.

This photograph was created the year after Cameron had begun to use a larger format camera which held a 15 x 12 inch glass negative. Through her use of this, the artist sought to achieve a ‘more emotionally penetrating form of portraiture’ than was customary at the time.

The portrait itself, which is inspired by much-copied portrait (c.1600) by painter Guido Reni, is both remarkably candid and yet is a photographic conceit. It purports to be a study for a portrait of Beatrice Cenci (1577-1599), a Roman noblewoman who had murdered her abusive father and was herself executed over 250 years before Cameron staged this photograph.

The sitter is in fact Cameron’s frequent model, May Prinsep (1853-1931), who was born in Kolkata but grew up in Surrey and Kensington and had visited the artist on the Isle of Wight. She appears as Christabel, La Contadina, Sybil, Elaine, and Lynette, as well as herself, in Cameron’s photographs between 1866 and 1874.

Julia Margaret Cameron (1815-1879) began her career in photography at the age of 48, having received her first camera as a present from her daughter. Experimental and much ridiculed by her male peers, she produced some 900 photographs over a period of 12 years. Her niece, Julia Prinsep Stephen, wrote her biography, while her grandniece, Virginia Woolf, portrayed her in the play, Freshwater: A comedy (1935).

Beatrice (Study of Beatrice Cenci) (1866) by Julia Margaret Cameron is featured in our new exhibition, ALL EYES ON US, until 24 March.

The Arts House: Conor Tallon chats with curator Michael Waldron about a work from the Collection every Sunday morning on Cork’s 96FM and C103 Cork. 

• Facebook
• Instagram
• Twitter
• LinkedIn
• YouTube