Lady hawarden rwness
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Transcript of Lady hawarden rwness
Lady
Hawarden
&
Her
Children
Clementina Elphinstone Fleeming, c 1838
Lady Hawarden was born Clementina Elphinstone Fleeming in 1822. In 1845, she married Cornwallis Maude, 4th Viscount Hawarden. Around 1857, Hawarden began taking photographs, and two years later the family moved to 5 Princes Garden, Kensington. From then on, her adolescent daughters, in the spaces of her London home were the focus of her photographic work.
Hawarden exhibited at the Photographic Society of London in 1863 and 1864. The author Lewis Carroll became an admirer and collector of her work. In 1865, Hawarden died suddenly of pneumonia at the age of 42. The eldest of her children was just nineteen. It is thought that exposure to chemicals used in photographic development may have weakened her immune system.
As an artist, Clementina Hawarden was overlooked for years, but is now recognized and respected as one of Britain’s first female photographers. Ninety percent of Hawarden’s work is in a collection at the V & A Museumjust blocks from the site of Hawarden’s former home.
TitleLady Hawarden, about 1861-62
CHILDREN
Between 1846 and 1864, Hawarden gave birth to ten children.
Eight survived infancy, seven of which were girls. As
Hawarden grew as an artist, her adolescent daughters, in the
spaces of their home, became the focus of her work.
• Isabella Grace “Trotty” b.1846-
• Clementina Maude Chukky”
b.1847-
• Florence Elizabeth “Bo” b.1849-
• Cornwallis “Toby” b.1852-
• Kathleen “Tibby” b.1854-
• Beatrix Emma b.5/4, 1856-d.8/4
1856
• Elphinstone Agnes “Eppy”
b.1857
• Eustance Mountstuart b.12/6,
1859-
• d.12/7, 1859
• Leucha Diana b.1860
• Antonia Lillian “Tony” b.1864
TitleTrotty Chukky Epp
yBo
HOME
During the years 1859-64,
Hawarden’s home was her
studio, and the interior and
exterior spaces of 5 Princes
Gardens in Kensington
featured prominently in her
work. The home was a
stage setting, and her
children were her models.
The site of the house, which
was demolished in the late
1950’s, is across from the V
& A Museum and now part
of the Imperial College of
London.Isabella Grace on the balcony,
early 1860’sTitle
In 1864, Lewis Carroll purchased
five photographs by Hawarden,
which were shown at the
Photographic Society of
London’s exhibit, One of the
photographs he bought was an
image of Isabella Grace peering
into a mirror. Carroll wrote in his
diary, after visiting the exhibition,
that he “did not admire Mrs.
Cameron’s large heads taken out
of focus. The best of the life ones
were Lady Hawarden’s.” He
placed the five photographs in an
album titled “Professional and
Other Photographs”. The album
is now at the University of Texas
at Austin.
Title
Lewis Carroll holding a lens, c.1863
EXTERIOR
The balcony and terraces of
Hawarden’s home were
frequently used as settings for
her compositions. Hawarden
seems particularly drawn to
the spaces in-between the
domestic interior and the world
outside. This theme is doubled
in that Hawarden daughters
are captured in-between
girlhood and adulthood.
Mirrors, windows, and glass
doorways act as a translucent
fascia between the two worlds.
Isabella Grace & Clementina Maude
Title
INTERIOR
Hawarden stripped the first floor
rooms of her home of Victorian
excess, and used them as her
studio spaces, making use of
light and mirrors in her
compositions. Here, the closed
and confining, female world of
the wealthy is brought into view.
While many male photographers
were working in far away, exotic
locations, Hawarden’s oeuvre
was one of domesticity. Her
explorations were of the inner
female world - brought into
focus through the spaces of the
home. Title
Clementina Maude, about 1863-1864
CHUKKY
The photogenic
Clementina Maude, or
“Chukky” appears to
have been her
mother’s preferred
model. She is often
photographed acting
out scenes of
Victorian
preoccupations, such
as occultism, and
dressed in theatrical
costume, alongside
her sisters Isabella
Grace and Florence
Elizabeth.
Title
TROTTY
Hawarden’s work has
strong connections to
fashion photography. In
this image
Isabella Grace, or
“Trotty”, on the left, is
dressed in the height of
style. Florence
Elizabeth reflects and
doubles her sister’s
pose, acting as a light
and airy counterpoint to
Isabella Grace’s dark
formality.TitleIsabella Grace & Florence Elizabeth,
c. 1864
BO
Florence Elizabeth, or “Bo”, is shown here in an
1861 uncut stereoscopic view with her sister
Clementina Maude. Hawarden played with
drapery, light, and shadows, much in the same
way as seventeeth century Dutch painters.Title
EPPY
Although Hawarden’s
three eldest daughters
(Clementina Maude,
Isabella Grace &
Florence Elizabeth) were
her principle models from
1859-1864, we also
begin to see Elfinstone
Agnes, or “Eppy,
emerging as a subject.
Title
Elphinstone Agnes c. 1859-1861
MIRROR
Isabella Grace c. 1864
Title
Hawarden often
photographed her
daughters in front of
mirrors, using the device
to explore notions of the
double.
This image is one of five
prints, Lewis Carroll
bought in 1864. It is not
difficult to see the
connection to Carroll’s
book, Through the
Looking Glass, published in 1871.
DOUBLE
Start
Clementina Maude c. 1863
Hawarden was
preoccupied with the
notion of the
doppelganger. She
frequently employed
mirrors to “twin” her
daughters, composing
the reflections so that
they appeared to be
different, or occupying
a different space altogether.
After her death, Hawarden’s name disappeared from the
photographic journals, and it by mere coincidence that she
has been restored her place in the history of photography. In
1939, Hawarden’s grandaughter, Lady Clementina
Tottenham, visited an exhibition held at the V & A Museum
marking the 100th anniversary of the invention of
photography. Lady Tottenham was taken aback that her
grandmother was not represented in the show,.When she
learned from the curator that the museum had no examples
of her work, she spontaneously made a donation of the 775
prints in the family’s possession. Over the years, the prints
had been pasted into albums, and then rather violently
removed, which accounts for their rough condition. The
collection has been digitized and can be viewed at the V & A
Museum.
I cite the V & A Museum and Lady Hawarden: Studies from Life 1867-1864.
Aperture, 1999 for much of the information in this presentation. All images
Title