The photographs:
Famous Men and Fair Women
Julia Margaret CAMERON
British, 1815–79
Sappho (Mary Hillier), c. 1866
albumen silver photograph
26.8 x 35.0cm
The Wilson Centre for Photography
84:1004
The model for this study is Mary Hillier (1847–1936), one of Julia
Margaret Cameron's maids at her home in Freshwater, Isle of Wight. Sappho was
a sixth century poetess from the Greek island of Lesbos whose writings relate
to the private world of women.
The majority of the women in Cameron's
portraits are represented as legendary heroines or 'types' often emboding
knowledge and power. In this instance, Sappho is the symbol of poetry – an
attribute that Cameron associated with Beauty and the Muses
|
