The photographs:
Madonnas and Angelic Children
Julia Margaret CAMERON
British, 1815–79
I wait, 1872
albumen silver photograph
21.6 x 26.7 cm
The Wilson Centre for Photography
96:5531
Cameron took several similar studies of winged children that are
reminiscent of the angels seen in Renaissance paintings. This photograph can
be compared to one of the putti in a detail from Raphael's fresco known as
the Sistine Madonna. The putti images are as popular today as they were in
the 1860s and are frequently reproduced on contemporary greeting cards and
souvenirs.
Cameron often portrayed children as angels, in many cases
attaching large swans' wings to their backs to complete the effect. Posing in
this way was not always enjoyable, as one such subject recounts:
"Our roles were no less than those of two angels of the Nativity, and to sustain them we
were scantily clad, and each had a pair of heavy swans' wings fastened to her
narrow shoulders, while Aunt Julia, with ungentle touch, tousled our hair to
get rid of its prim nursery look."
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