The Cleveland Museum of Art
Collection Online as of April 13, 2024
Julia Jackson Duckworth (1846-1895)
1867
(British, 1815–1879)
Image: 28.4 x 22.4 cm (11 3/16 x 8 13/16 in.); Matted: 50.8 x 40.6 cm (20 x 16 in.)
Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Thomas A. Mann 1996.343
Location: not on view
Description
Julia Jackson, the artist’s niece, namesake, goddaughter, and favorite model, is shown at age 21, a few weeks before her wedding. Cameron’s usual soft focus here imparts a sense of becoming, appropriate to this important transformation in a Victorian woman’s life. The daringly modern frontal close-up suggests reflection and self-questioning more characteristic of peering into a mirror than posing before a camera. These two images are from a series of four works based on the same negative, each posited by scholars to be a reversal of the preceding image. Reversing the images alters the face, suggesting that Cameron valued recording Jackson’s inner life more than capturing her likeness. Cameron advanced the photographic portrait from commerce to art and from physiognomic depiction to evocation of a sitter’s soul.- Cleveland Museum of Art. Museum Masters: 2016-17 Companion Guide. [Cleveland, Ohio]: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2016. Mentioned and reproduced: P. 78
- Cheating Death: Portrait Photography’s First Half Century. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (October 22, 2016-February 5, 2017).
- {{cite web|title=Julia Jackson Duckworth (1846-1895)|url=false|author=Julia Margaret Cameron|year=1867|access-date=13 April 2024|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}
Source URL:
https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1996.343