Image Dimensions28.4 x 24.5 cm laid down within gilt ruled mount

Support Dimensions54.6 x 41.2 cm shown cropped to gilt ruled outline

Recto: unrestored albumen silver print with some surface abrasions pasted on mount and centered within gilt-ruled window; in black ink in the hand of the artist along lower margin beneath print, left to right: From life registered Photograph copy right   Julia Margaret Cameron  Freshwater; facsimile autograph: A Tennyson; dedication by the artist but with mount losses ending with the possible surname Wodehouse; With the love of their aunt; Julia Margaret Cameron 4 (?) May 1875; Colnaghi blindstamp at bottom margin.  Editors note: In the 1998 volume Julia Margaret Cameron’s Women, a Miss Philippa Wodehouse portrait by the artist is listed for sale at the price of 10 shillings as part of the reproduced advertisement: Mrs. Cameron’s Photographs: PRICED CATALOGUE. (p. 210)  It’s unknown if there’s a Wodehouse family connection for the original owner of this print.

A print on a similar mount held at the MET; other examples listed in Cox & Ford, “Julia Margaret Cameron: The Complete Photographs” (J. Paul Getty Museum), p. 359, cat. no. 810.

Purchased for this archive in July, 2016, with dealer stating:  “I bought it around 1980 at Sothebys in London. I tried to sell it about 10 years at Christies but I set too high a reserve and it didn’t sell.” Editors note: It is believed Sotheby’s Belgravia held three auctions of photography in 1980. Of these, the June 27th catalogue: “Photographic Images and Related Material” lists this portrait as lot #314-not a match with the present example. Unchecked for now are the March 21st and October 29th catalogues.