Julie Margaret Cameron photographs of Christina Spartali, ca. 1865-1870

Object Details

See more items in: Charles Lang Freer Papers; Charles Lang Freer Papers / Series 12: Photographs / 12.3: Portraits of Others

Biographical / Historical: Julia Margaret Cameron (1815-1879) was a British photographer noted for her portraits of celebrities of the day.; Christina Spartali, second daughter of Michael Spartali and Euphrosyne Varsini Spartali, was born in Middlesex, England, in the mid to late 1840s. Her father, a prosperous cotton merchant who resided in London, became Consul-General for Greece in 1866. From 1864, the family lived in London at "The Shrubbery" in Clapham Common, and through their relatives the Ionides, prominent patrons of the arts, became acquainted with members of the contemporary art world, including James McNeill Whistler. Julia Margaret Cameron was the Spartalis' neighbor at Sandford, the family's estate on the Isle of Wight. Christina and her sister Marie were extraordinarily well-educated for women of their generation, but they were equally well-known for their beauty. Marie Spartali was an artist who publicly exhibited her work until the end of her life, but she remains better known as a model for Dante Gabriel Rossetti and other Victorian artists. Christina, who pursued no profession, is remembered for only one work, Whistler's "La Princesse du pays de la porcelaine", for which she posed in 1864-1865. Although "La Princesse" was not intended as a portrait, Whistler exhibited it in 1892 as "Portrait of Miss S.---," confident that his contemporaries would recognize the reference.

Extent: 2 Prints (albumen and photogravure, image 13 x 9.8 cm mounted on board 16.4 x 10.6 cm.; second image is 7 3/4 x 5 in. on a sheet approx. 14 x 11in.)

Archival Repository: Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Archives

Collection Citation: Charles Lang Freer Papers. FSA A.01. National Museum of Asian Art Archives. Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C. Gift of the estate of Charles Lang Freer.

Collection Rights: Permission to publish, quote, or reproduce must be secured from the repository.

Scope and Contents: Head and shoulders portraits of Christina Spartali, taken by Julia Margaret Cameron circa 1865-1870. One albumen print, mounted on gold cardboard. The line "From life copyright Julia Margaret Cameron" is printed on the board below the photo, followed by a second and third line, written in ink, which read "Christina Spartali" and "now Countess Cahen D'Anvers" respectively. A second portrait is a photogravure printed from an original Cameron negative in 1891 for the publication "Sun & Shade" by the publisher New York Photo-Gravure Co.; Julia Margaret Cameron photographs of Christina Spartali