Julia Margaret Cameron
Kate Keown

ArtistBritish, born India, 1815–1879
CultureBritish
Titles
  • Kate Keown
  • from the album Mrs. Cameron’s Photographs from the Life
Date1866, assembled 1869
MediumAlbumen silver print from glass negative
DimensionsImage: 13 11/16 × 10 7/16 in. (34.8 × 26.5 cm)
Sheet: 13 11/16 × 10 7/16 in. (34.8 × 26.5 cm)
Mount: 18 1/8 × 12 3/8 in. (46 × 31.5 cm)
Credit LineMuseum purchase
Object number2021.282.16
Not on view

Explore Further

Department
Photography
Object Type
Description


In spring and summer 1866, having purchased a new, larger camera, Cameron produced a series of 12 “life-sized heads,” including this angelic study. Throughout her work, poetic truth was valued above photographic truthfulness. She conveyed a sense of life and breath and of honest emotion through careful lighting, shallow depth of field, and soft focus. “My first successes in my out-of-focus pictures were a fluke,” Cameron wrote. “That is to say, that when focusing and coming to something which, to my eye, was very beautiful, I stopped there instead of screwing on the lens to the more definite focus which all other photographers insist on.”



ProvenanceGiven by the artist to her daughter Julia and son-in-law Charles Norman; by descent to his son Archibald Cameron Norman; by descent to his son Charles Lloyd Norman; by descent to his son Charles Wake Norman; by descent to his son to William Norman; by descent to his son Stephen Norman; [consigned to Hans P. Kraus, New York, 2012]; purchased by MFAH, 2021.
Inscriptions, Signatures and Marks
Inscribed on mount recto, below image: Kate Keowen / Not enlarged
Catalogue raisonnéCox & Ford p. 505 "Norman Album", plate 876

Cataloguing data may change with further research.

If you have questions about this work of art or the MFAH Online Collection please contact us.

Alice Keown
Julia Margaret Cameron
1866, assembled 1869
Albumen silver print from glass negative
2021.282.2
Déjatch Alámayou & Báshá Félika, King Theodore's Son & Captain Speedy
Julia Margaret Cameron
1868, assembled 1869
Albumen silver print from glass negative
2021.282.47
Paul and Virginia
Julia Margaret Cameron
1864, assembled 1869
Albumen silver print from glass negative
2021.282.48
Henry Taylor
Julia Margaret Cameron
1865, assembled 1869
Albumen silver print from glass negative
2021.282.18
The Dirty Monk, Alfred Tennyson
Julia Margaret Cameron
1865, assembled 1869
Albumen silver print from glass negative
2021.282.19
Adriana
Julia Margaret Cameron
1866, assembled 1869
Albumen silver print from glass negative
2021.282.20
The Mountain Nymph Sweet Liberty
Julia Margaret Cameron
1866, assembled 1869
Albumen silver print from glass negative
2021.282.21
The Honourable Frank Charteris
Julia Margaret Cameron
1867, assembled 1869
Albumen silver print from glass negative
2021.282.14
William Gifford Palgrave
Julia Margaret Cameron
1868, assembled 1869
Albumen silver print from glass negative
2021.282.15
The Christ Kind
Julia Margaret Cameron
1868, assembled 1869
Albumen silver print from glass negative
2021.282.17
Christabel
Julia Margaret Cameron
1866, assembled 1869
Albumen silver print from glass negative
2021.282.22
Mary Mother
Julia Margaret Cameron
1867, assembled 1869
Albumen silver print from glass negative
2021.282.23