Poet Alfred Tennyson (1809–1892) was widely published and
admired by 1850, when Queen Victoria named him poet laureate to succeed William
Wordsworth. “The Lady of Shalott,” “The Charge of the Light Brigade,” and Idylls
of the King are among his best-remembered works.
Tennyson, who lived next door to Julia Margaret Cameron on the Isle of Wight, dubbed
this portrait “The Dirty Monk.”

Cameron gave this print to her son-in-law Charles Norman
who, with his wife, had given Cameron her first camera as a Christmas present
in 1863. The artist inscribed this print “For Charlie Norman with his

Mother’s love.”