The photographs:
Idylls and Fancy Subjects
Julia Margaret CAMERON
British, 1815–79
The parting of Sir Lancelot and Queen Guinevere, 1874
From Idylls of the King and Other Poems, volume I, plate X
albumen silver photograph
35.0 x 45.0 cm
The Wilson Centre for Photography
96:5406:01
The text that accompanies this photograph is from Guinevere published in
1859. It is the eleventh book of Tennyson's Idylls of the King.
Cameron carefully selected models to fulfil each role in the Camelot saga but had not
found a suitable Lancelot until very late in 1874, after all the other
photographs had been submitted to the publishers. It is not known who this
model is. The model for Guinevere is Mrs Hardinge.
In this illustration
Cameron was more faithful to the original text than in many of her other
narrative pictures:
"And Lancelot ever promised, but remain'd,
And still they met and met. Again she said,
O Lancelot if thou love me get thee hence."
This is one of Cameron's most poignant depictions of life at Camelot. Here the
gestures of both the male and female characters indicate that they are
emotionally distraught at the impending parting.
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