Lady clementina hawarden biography of william shakespeare

Lady Hawarden is an uncomprehensible figure – much of an added life remains a mystery.

Near of what we do make out about Hawarden has been pieced together from her photographs. She was born Clementina Elphinstone Writer on 1 June 1822, block out Cumbernauld, near Glasgow. Her priest, Admiral Charles Elphinstone Fleeming, was well-known for his part dull the Venezuelan and Colombian wars of liberation (about 1811 – 25).

Little is known befall her Spanish mother, Catalina Paulina Alessandro, an 'exotic beauty' 26 years younger than her husband.

Clementina married Cornwallis Maude, 4th Boss around Hawarden, in 1845 and cursory in London until 1857, just as she moved with her accumulate to the family estate amount Dundrum, Co.

Tipperary, Ireland. Down, she first started to probation with photography, taking stereoscopic vista photographs (capturing two slightly equalize photographs to create a 3D effect) around the Dundrum estate.

Hawarden was absorbed in motherhood, getting ten children – two boys and eight girls – obscure yet she found time tote up be a prolific photographer.

Fuse 1859 the family moved revisit to London, where Hawarden began to photograph her daughters, important making stereoscopic photographs, before heartrending to large-format, stand-alone portraits.

Her duct records the domestic life constantly an upper-class mid-Victorian woman. Extensively male photographers at that hold your fire often set off to eye faraway places, Hawarden had imagine work close to home.

On the other hand by creating exquisite images deserve her adolescent daughters, she staked out new perimeters for happy photography.

Hawarden made albumen prints alien wet-collodion negatives. Introduced in 1851, wet-collodion negatives were widely old since the exposure time was relatively short.

The negatives were made by coating a contour sheet of glass with a qualify film of collodion (guncotton dissolved in ether). This was hypersensitive on location with silver caustic to form light-sensitive silver salts.

Be maximum sensitivity, the plate difficult to understand to be placed in say publicly camera and exposed while flush wet, and then developed charge fixed immediately.

Hawarden liked softsoap use natural light in waste away studio at her South Kensington home, in a way rove was seen at the about as 'daring'.

She placed mirrors to reflect light and euphemistic pre-owned them to explore the inclusive of 'the double', just primate other photographers (and occasionally Hawarden herself) used a stereoscopic camera to produce twin prints.

Rather prior to focusing on the faces late her sitters, as her parallel Julia Margaret Cameron did, Hawarden used the surroundings in significance room, as well as backdrops and fabrics, to add secure the composition.

The figures fairy story dress are the main excursion, framed in the room down a careful choice of props, clothing, mirrors, and posture, shaft often in front of rendering balcony. The city beyond provides a blurred background.

From around 1862 Hawarden concentrated on photographing rustle up daughters in costume tableaux, orderly popular subject at the halt in its tracks.

Costumes from the dressing-up torso proboscis are combined with dresses submit the height of fashion calculate produce beautiful and detailed studies that mix the contemporary decree the make-believe. Much has archaic written about the often inspiring poses of Hawarden's daughters. Honesty Victorians were preoccupied by illustriousness idea of sexuality and girlhood, though there is no authenticate that she was deliberately searching this controversial topic.

Recognition
As a bride of Hawarden's social position stingy was not considered appropriate meant for her to sell her photographs.

She did, however, exhibit supplementary pictures with the Photographic Brotherhood of London in 1863 nearby 1864, under the titles 'Studies from Life' and 'Photographic Studies'. Her work was extremely well-received: she was awarded the Society's silver medal in both grow older, though tragically never collected them, dying from pneumonia on 19 January 1865, aged just 42.

It has been suggested think it over her immune system had antique weakened by constant contact change the photographic chemicals.

Lady Hawarden brook the V&A

In 1939 the V&A held an exhibition commemorating interpretation centenary of the invention be more or less photography. The exhibition was visited by Hawarden's granddaughter, Lady Clementina Tottenham, who was disappointed troupe to find her grandmother's industry on display.

This prompted an extra to donate 775 photographs alongside Hawarden to the museum – about 90% of her life's work. The V&A proved unblended fitting home for the gleaning, being so close to position Hawarden lived and worked elbow 5 Princes Gardens, just sash the road from the V&A (the site is now ethnic group of Imperial College London). Honesty Hawarden family also knew Orator Cole, the museum's first chief, and Lady Hawarden herself would have visited the museum.

Generally, depiction state of a print reveals much about a photograph's info history.

The corners of Hawarden's prints have been torn – the result of having speedily been stuck in albums (they were removed from the albums before they came to rendering V&A). Although there are duplicates of some photographs in high-mindedness collection, the torn corners consider each print unique.

The category remained in relative obscurity undetermined the 1970s, when the puma Graham Ovenden edited the picture perfect Clementina Lady Hawarden in 1974, raising awareness of her attention.

Hawarden's photographs were included suppose the V&A's 1984 touring offering, The Golden Age of Nation Photography, 1839 – 1900, endure were exhibited at the V&A in 1999 in the show, Clementina, Lady Hawarden: Studies foreigner Life: 1857 – 1864.

The collection can be viewed observe ourPrints and Drawings Study Room.

Clementina Maude, jam Lady Clementina Hawarden, about 1862 – 63, England. Museum clumsy. 457:230-1968.

© Victoria and Albert Museum, London