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Lot 52

DARWIN (CHARLES)
CAMERON (JULIA MARGARET) Portrait photograph of Charles Darwin, near half-length, facing left, [Freshwater, I.O.W., copyright 23 July 1868]

4 December 2019, 11:00 GMT
London, Knightsbridge

Sold for £22,562.50 inc. premium

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DARWIN (CHARLES)

CAMERON (JULIA MARGARET) Portrait photograph of Charles Darwin, near half-length, facing left, albumen print, signed by the photographer under image "From Life Registered Photograph (Copy Right)/ Julia Margaret Cameron", mounted on card (with embossed stamp of Colnaghi), framed and glazed [Cox & Ford 644], image 340 x 280mm., mount size 510 x 407mm., [Freshwater, I.O.W., copyright 23 July 1868]

Footnotes

Charles Darwin rented a cottage at Freshwater, I.O.W. from the Camerons, in July and August 1868, during which time he enjoyed the company of other visitors such as Alfred Tennyson, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, and Joseph Hooker. "Darwin left the Isle of Wight having been entirely charmed with Cameron's renowned wit and her photographic camera. That week she made four exposures of Darwin, which lend extraordinary depth of tone and detail to Darwin's increasingly well-known beard and penetrating gaze" ('Darwin's Photographic Portraits', Darwin Correspondence Project website). Darwin was one of only a few sitters who actually paid for the photographs. The current image, facing left, is the rarest of the series.

Provenance: R.B. Freeman; by descent to present owner.

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