(Darwin, Charles) — Julia Margaret Cameron | The rarest of Cameron’s portraits of Darwin

(Darwin, Charles) — Julia Margaret Cameron

Profile bust portrait of Charles Darwin, signed by Julia Margaret Cameron, 1868

Albumen print (338 x 262 mm). Near half-length portrait, with Darwin facing right, original card mount (531 x 425 mm), signed, dated and inscribed by Cameron ("From Life Registered Photograph (Copy Right) | Julia Margaret Cameron"), blindstamp of "Messrs Colnaghi, 14 Pall Mall, London" to lower margin; closed tear to lower margin, matburn primarily to verso; a few small spots and scratches, generally unobtrusive, some general toning.

The rarest of Cameron’s photographs of Darwin

Julia Margaret Cameron’s 1868 profile portraits of Darwin are probably the most famous photographs of a nineteenth-century scientist. In 1868, Darwin and his family traveled to the Isle of Wight, both for a long holiday and to aid in his recuperation from a recent illness. The Darwins rented a house from Cameron and were immediately charmed by the photographer:

She received the whole family with open-hearted kindness and hospitality, and Darwin always retained a warm feeling of friendship for her. When they left she came to see them off, loading them with presents of photographs. Moved, Darwin said: ‘Mrs. Cameron, there are sixteen people in this house, all in love with you.’ Darwin paid her for her portraits of him, and as the Camerons had by that time lost a great deal of money through the continued failure of the coffee crop, she gladly accepted payment and ran boasting to her husband, ‘Look, Charles, what a lot of money!’ (Gernsheim)

The present is one of two portraits Cameron took of Darwin whilst the scientist was on the Isle of Wight. Until it was published as the frontispiece to Freeman's Charles Darwin: A Companion, this version had never been reproduced, and it remains the rarest of Cameron's images of Darwin.

REFERENCE:

Gernsheim, Julia Margaret Cameron