Julia Margaret Cameron
Rosalba (Cyllena Wilson)

ArtistBritish, born India, 1815–1879
CultureBritish
Titles
  • Rosalba (Cyllena Wilson)
Date1867
MediumAlbumen silver print from glass negative
DimensionsImage: 14 × 11 1/16 in. (35.5 × 28.1 cm)
Sheet: 14 × 11 1/16 in. (35.6 × 28.1 cm)
Mount: 20 15/16 × 16 7/8 in. (53.2 × 42.9 cm)
Credit LineMuseum purchase funded by the Brown Foundation Accessions Endowment Fund, The Manfred Heiting Collection
Object number2004.335
Non exposé

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Department
Photography
Object Type
DescriptionOne of the greatest portraitists in the history of photography—indeed in any medium—Julia Margaret Cameron blended an unorthodox technique, a profoundly spiritual sensibility, and a Pre-Raphaelite–inflected aesthetic to create a gallery of vivid portraits and a mirror of the Victorian soul. Condemned by some contemporaries for sloppy craftsmanship, she purposely avoided the perfect resolution and minute detail that professional portrait studios strove for, opting instead for carefully directed light, soft focus, and long exposures that allowed her sitters’ slight movements to register in her pictures, instilling them with a sense of breath and life. Cameron’s male subjects included a host of Victorian luminaries such as Charles Darwin, to whom she gave this print. Her female subjects, by contrast, were most often relatives, neighbors, or household servants, portrayed in the guise of literary, historical, or biblical characters. In this close-up portrait, Cameron presented her adopted daughter Cyllena Wilson as Rosalba, a young bride torn between duty and desire in the play The Virgin Widow by the photographer’s close friend Sir Henry Taylor.
ProvenanceEx-collection descendants of Charles Darwin; [Hans P. Kraus, Jr., Inc., New York];
purchased by Manfred Heiting, July 25, 1989; purchased by MFAH, 2004.
Exhibition History"At the Still Point", Paris Photo, Caroussel de Louvre, Paris, 1997.

“History of Photography I: Selections from the Museum's Collection,” The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, November 1, 2014–February 22, 2015.

"Judy Chicago: Herstory," New Museum of Contemporary Art, New York, October 12, 2023–January 14, 2024. (OL.1636)
Inscriptions, Signatures and Marks
Inscribed verso of mount, in pencil, upper right: "Rosalba (Cyllene Wilson) 1867"
Blind stamp lower center of mount recto: "Registered Photograph // sold by // Messrs Colnaghi // 14 Pall Mall East // London"
Inscribed in pencil, verso of mount, lower left: "X2331"
Catalogue raisonné2003, plate 509

Cataloguing data may change with further research.

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Rosalba
Julia Margaret Cameron
1867, assembled 1869
Albumen silver print from glass negative
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Albumen silver print from glass negative
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Albumen silver print from glass negative
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Julia Margaret Cameron
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Albumen silver print from glass negative
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Albumen silver print from glass negative
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Julia Margaret Cameron
1866, assembled 1869
Albumen silver print from glass negative
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