Mnemosyne (Marie Spartali, 1844-1927)

Abstract

JuliaMargaret Cameron became an artist late in life. She did not begin her career until the age of 48 years when her daughter and son-in-law gave her a camera as a Christmas present. Although shewasnot technically an artist before the camerawas in her hands, she always led her life as anartist, asmuchasawoman inVictorianEnglandcould,while remainingrespectable.Shewasalwayssurroundedbythemost brilliant, most creative, andmost interesting people that Victorian England had to offer. Her family was well off and well known. Her sisters were known as great beauties, but Julia seemed tomake up for her lack of beauty with charm and eccentricity,whichmadeher a greathostess and laterhelpedher to become a celebrated artist in a brand newmedium. Cameron was born in Calcutta, India, in 1815.1(p25) When Cameron’s great-niece, Virginia Woolf, published her photographs along with art critic Roger Fry in 1926, she described Julia’s parents by telling the story of her father’s deathby selfinduced alcohol poisoning. The body was then confined to a rum barrel to be shipped back to England for burial. Unfortunately, owing to some sort of chemical reaction, the lid of the barrel (whichwas stored directly belowhiswidow’swindow) blew off, and his body popped up, sending Mrs Pattle into a hysterical state that killed her.2(p13) Unfortunately, this story is likely fiction. It was Julia’s uncle who was the drinker, not her father, but needless to say, the family was inventive and remainedproudandeccentric longafterCameron’sdeath.2(p21) Cameron met her husband, Charles Hay Cameron, while theywereboth convalescingon theCapeofGoodHope, South Africa. After beingmarried for 10 years theymoved their family to London, where Cameron’s sister, Sarah Prinsep, was already livingwithherhusband.ThePrinseps frequentlyhosted salons attendedby the literati of London.While living in London, theCamerons attended the salons andwere active in cultural appreciation.Agoodexampleof the intelligenceandcreativity that Cameronpossessed evenbefore photographywas her 1847 translation of the romantic, though somewhat macabre, balladLenore (originallywritten inGermanbyGottfried August Burger in 1773), which was published with illustrations by Daniel Maclise.3(p7) AlfredLordTennyson, thepoet laureate formuchofQueen Victoria’s reign,was a family friend.While visiting himon the Isle of Wight, Cameron purchased a nearby home, naming it Dimbolaafterher family’s estate inCeylon.1(p13) Itwashere that Cameron trulybeganher career as anartist.After receiving the camera from her daughter, it seems that Cameron threw herself into this new art form. She would photograph everyone and anyone if given the opportunity.Her subjects not only included Charles Darwin, Robert Browning, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, the famous actress EllenTerry, and thepainterG. F. Watts, but also her kitchenmaid and family members. She converted a hen coop on the property to serve as her studio. Her photographs were processed using wet collodion glass negatives and thenprinted on albumenpaper. Itwas amessy, toxic process, which did not deter her at all. She was known towalk around in stained clothes, adding to her reputation as somewhat eccentric. Cameron followed the artistic fashions of theday andwas heavily influencedbythePre-RaphaeliteBrotherhood.ThePreRaphaelites, as Roger Fry states in his introduction to Victorian Photographs of FamousMenF whether it was a direct influence or simply the fashion inBritainat the time, thesimilaritiesareundoubtedly there. The long, flowing hair, the classical ormedieval subjects, and some of the models are even the same, as is the case in this image,whichCameron titledMnemosyne (Figure). Themodel embodyingMnemosyne isMaria Spartali (later Stillman).Maria, along with her sister Christina, was a frequent model for suchartistsasDanteGabrielRossetti,EdwardBurne-Jones,and WilliamMorris. Theywere appreciated for their long, beautiful hair and classical features. Maria was also a painter in her own right; her subjects and style of painting list her as an artist oftenassociatedwith thePre-Raphaelites. This image isnot the only time she modeled for Cameron either. In other images she played parts that Cameron titledHypatia, The Imperial Eleanore, or The Spirit of the Vine.3(pp260-261) At Dimbola, Cameron, her family, and their guests would stage elaborate plays.3(p32) Costumes and accessories for her portraits must havealsoservedasprops for this theater.Mnemosyne, inGreek mythology, was a Titaness, the daughter of Uranus and Gaia, whogives birth to the 9muses, after a 9-night trystwith Zeus. As Mnemosyne, Spartali’s hair spills down the front of her dress in loose waves. On her head she wears a crown of ivy, which is repeated on her belt. Perhaps this device is used to indicate to the viewer that she is connected to the earth, her mother Gaia. As in most of Cameron’s “portraits,” Mnemosyne/Spartali does not look directly at the camera but wistfully, or perhaps deep in thought, her focus is elsewhere. Another aspect typical of Cameron’s work is the slight blurriness or lack of focus. As she wrote in her unfinished autobiography Annals of My Glass House: “When focusing and coming to something which, to my eye, was very beautiful, I stopped there instead of screwing on the