{"meta":{"version":"2.1","_links":{"self":{"href":"https://api.vam.ac.uk/v2/object/O123369"},"collection_page":{"href":"https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O123369/"}},"images":{"_primary_thumbnail":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2023NN7939/full/!100,100/0/default.jpg","_iiif_image":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2023NN7939/","_alt_iiif_image":[],"imageResolution":"high","_images_meta":[{"assetRef":"2023NN7939","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2006BC3948","copyright":"©Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2017JU9753","copyright":"©Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false}]},"see_also":{"_iiif_pres":"https://iiif.vam.ac.uk/collections/O123369/manifest.json","_alt_iiif_pres":[]}},"record":{"systemNumber":"O123369","accessionNumber":"936-1913","objectType":"Photograph","titles":[{"title":"The Angel at the Sepulchre","type":"assigned by artist"}],"summaryDescription":"In late 1865, Julia Margaret Cameron began using a larger camera. It held a 15 x 12 inch glass negative, rather than the 12 x 10 inch negative of her first camera. Early the next year she wrote to Henry Cole with great enthusiasm – but little modesty – about the new turn she had taken in her work.\n\r\nCameron initiated a series of large-scale, closeup heads that fulfilled her photographic vision. She saw them as a rejection of ‘mere conventional topographic photography – map-making and skeleton rendering of feature and form’ in favour of a less precise but more emotionally penetrating form of portraiture. Cameron also continued to make narrative and allegorical tableaux, which were larger and bolder than her previous efforts.\n\nOne critic accused Cameron of ‘questionable taste’ for exhibiting this photograph with the words ‘very beautiful / none better / G.F. Watts’ inscribed on it. Cameron was clearly proud of Watts’ praise and produced prints of the image with his inscription reproduced on the mounts. The title refers to the angel that appeared at Christ’s tomb after his resurrection, though in the biblical account the angel was male.","physicalDescription":"Photograph of a woman's head (Mary Hillier) viewed from the side, with long hair and material draped over her head. There are white lillies at the bottom of the frame.","artistMakerPerson":[{"name":{"text":"Cameron, Julia Margaret","id":"A8214"},"association":{"text":"photographer","id":"AAT25687"},"note":""}],"artistMakerOrganisations":[],"artistMakerPeople":[],"materials":[{"text":"photographic paper","id":"AAT14190"}],"techniques":[{"text":"albumen process","id":"AAT133274"}],"materialsAndTechniques":"Albumen print from wet collodion glass negative","categories":[{"text":"Photographs","id":"THES48910"},{"text":"Religion","id":"THES48900"},{"text":"Christianity","id":"THES48978"},{"text":"Biblical Imagery","id":"THES253006"},{"text":"Woman Artist","id":"THES387590"},{"text":"Woman photographer","id":"THES380381"}],"styles":[{"text":"Victorian","id":"AAT21232"}],"collectionCode":{"text":"PDP","id":"THES48595"},"images":["2023NN7939","2006BC3948","2017JU9753"],"imageResolution":"high","galleryLocations":[{"current":{"text":"LVLF","id":"THES49656"},"free":"","case":"X","shelf":"311","box":"T"}],"partTypes":[[{"text":"photograph","id":"AAT46300"}]],"contentWarnings":[{"apprise":"No","note":""}],"placesOfOrigin":[{"place":{"text":"Isle of Wight","id":"x28925"},"association":{"text":"photographed","id":"x30151"},"note":""}],"productionDates":[{"date":{"text":"1869-70","earliest":"1869-01-01","latest":"1870-12-31"},"association":{"text":"photographed","id":"x30151"},"note":"date assigned by Cox and Ford"}],"associatedObjects":[],"creditLine":"Given by Alan S. Cole, 19 April 1913","dimensions":[{"dimension":"Height","value":"353","unit":"mm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""},{"dimension":"Width","value":"256","unit":"mm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""}],"dimensionsNote":"","marksAndInscriptions":[{"content":"'From Life / Julia Margaret Cameron'","inscriber":{"name":{"text":"","id":""},"association":{"text":"","id":""}},"date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"description":"","interpretation":"","language":"","medium":"","method":"","position":"","script":"","translation":"","transliteration":"","type":"","note":"ink"},{"content":"'REGISTERED PHOTOGRAPH, sold by MESSrs COLNAGHI, 14 Pall Mall East, London'","inscriber":{"name":{"text":"","id":""},"association":{"text":"","id":""}},"date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"description":"","interpretation":"","language":"","medium":"","method":"","position":"","script":"","translation":"","transliteration":"","type":"","note":"blindstamp"}],"objectHistory":"Julia Margaret Cameron (1815–79) was one of the most important and innovative photographers of the 19th century. Her photographs were rule-breaking: purposely out of focus, and often including scratches, smudges and other traces of the artist’s process.  Best known for her powerful portraits, she also posed her sitters – friends, family and servants – as characters from biblical, historical or allegorical stories.   \r\n\r\nBorn in Calcutta on 11 June 1815, the fourth of seven sisters, her father was an East India Company official and her mother descended from French aristocracy. Educated mainly in France, Cameron returned to India in 1834. \r\n\r\nIn 1842, the British astronomer Sir John Herschel (1792 – 1871) introduced Cameron to photography, sending her examples of the new invention. They had met in 1836 while Cameron was convalescing from an illness in the Cape of Good Hope, South Africa.  He remained a life-long friend and correspondent on technical photographic matters. That same year she met Charles Hay Cameron (1795–1880), 20 years her senior, a reformer of Indian law and education. They married in Calcutta in 1838 and she became a prominent hostess in colonial society. A decade later, the Camerons moved to England. By then they had four children; two more were born in England. Several of Cameron’s sisters were already living there, and had established literary, artistic and social connections. The Camerons eventually settled in Freshwater, on the Isle of Wight.\r\n\r\nAt the age of 48 Cameron received a camera as a gift from her daughter and son-in-law. It was accompanied by the words, ‘It may amuse you, Mother, to try to photograph during your solitude at Freshwater.’  Cameron had compiled albums and even printed photographs before, but her work as a photographer now began in earnest.  \r\n\r\nThe Camerons lived at Freshwater until 1875, when they moved to Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) where Charles Cameron had purchased coffee and rubber plantations, managed under difficult agricultural and financial conditions by three of their sons. Cameron continued her photographic practice at her new home yet her output decreased significantly and only a small body of photographs from this time remains. After moving to Ceylon the Camerons made only one more visit to England in May 1878.  Julia Margaret Cameron died after a brief illness in Ceylon in 1879.\r\n\r\nCameron’s relationship with the Victoria and Albert Museum dates to the earliest years of her photographic career.  The first museum exhibition of Cameron's work was held in 1865 at the South Kensington Museum, London (now the V&amp;A). The South Kensington Museum was not only the sole museum to exhibit Cameron’s work in her lifetime, but also the institution that collected her photographs most extensively in her day. In 1868 the Museum gave Cameron the use of two rooms as a portrait studio, perhaps qualifying her as its first artist-in-residence. Today the V&amp;A’s Cameron collection includes photographs acquired directly from the artist, others collected later from various sources, and five letters from Cameron to Sir Henry Cole (1808–82), the Museum’s founding director and an early supporter of photography.\r\n","historicalContext":"","briefDescription":"Photograph by Julia Margaret Cameron, 'The Angel at the Sepulchre' (sitter Mary Hillier), albumen print, 1869-70","bibliographicReferences":[{"reference":{"text":"Ford, Colin, <u>Julia Margaret Cameron: 19th Century Photographer of Genius</u>, London, National Portrait Gallery, 2003","id":"AUTH353300"},"details":"p.128","free":""},{"reference":{"text":"Cox, Julian and Colin Ford, with contributions by Joanne Lukitsh and Philippa Wright. <u>Julia Margaret Cameron: The Complete Photographs</u>. London: Thames &amp; Hudson, in association with The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles and The National Museum of Photography, Film & Television, Bradford, 2003. ISBN: 0-500-54265-1","id":"AUTH321348"},"details":"Cat. no. 268, p. 211","free":""},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Weiss, Marta. <u>Julia Margaret Cameron: Photographs to electrify you with delight and startle the world</u>. London: MACK, 2015, p. 96."}],"production":"","productionType":{"text":"","id":""},"contentDescription":"","contentPlaces":[],"associatedPlaces":[],"contentPerson":[{"text":"Mary Magdalen (Magdalene)","id":"N482"},{"text":"Mary Ann Hillier","id":"N2496"}],"associatedPerson":[],"contentOrganisations":[],"associatedOrganisations":[],"contentPeople":[],"associatedPeople":[],"contentEvents":[],"associatedEvents":[],"contentOthers":[],"contentConcepts":[{"text":"Religion","id":"x37580"},{"text":"Christianity","id":"AAT73711"}],"contentLiteraryRefs":["Matthew (28:1-7)"],"galleryLabels":[{"text":"<i>Julia Margaret Cameron</i>\nVictoria and Albert Museum\n\n<b>The Angel at the Sepulchre</b>\n\r\n1869–70\n\r\nOne critic accused Cameron of ‘questionable taste’ for exhibiting this photograph with the words ‘very beautiful / none better / G.F. Watts’ inscribed on it. Cameron was clearly proud of Watts’ praise and produced prints of the image with his inscription reproduced on the mounts. The title refers to the angel that appeared at Christ’s tomb after his resurrection, though in the biblical account the angel was male.\n\r\nGiven by Alan S. Cole, 1913\r\nV&amp;A: 936-1913","date":{"text":"28 November 2015 - 21 February 2016","earliest":"2015-11-28","latest":"2016-02-21"}},{"text":"<b>Object Type</b><br>\r\nThis photograph was produced by Julia Margaret Cameron (1815-1879) as a work of fine art to be shown in the context of a museum or gallery. It was not intended for mass reproduction, or as a portrait of the sitter, but as an artistic expression in its own right.<br><br>\r\n\r\n<b>People</b><br>\r\nThe sitter is Cameron's maid, Mary Ann Hillier (1847-1936), who Cameron described as 'one of the most beautiful and constant of my models, and in every manner of form has her face been reproduced, yet never has it been felt that the grace of the fashion of it has perished.' (<u>Annals of my Glass House</u> (1874). Hillier began working as Cameron's parlour maid in 1861, aged 14, and remained in her service as maid and model until 1875.\r\n<br><br>\r\n\r\n<b>Subjects Depicted</b><br>\r\nLilies were a popular Aesthetic motif and, along with the flowing hair and drapery, they add to the carefully constructed beauty of the composition. The title refers to the angel at the sepulchre after Christ's resurrection, though in the biblical account the angel was male. Cameron could be conflating the image of the angel with Mary Magdalene, penitant prostitute who was the first to see Christ following his Resurrection.\r\n<br><br>","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null}}],"partNumbers":["936-1913"],"accessionNumberNum":"936","accessionNumberPrefix":"","accessionYear":1913,"otherNumbers":[],"copyNumber":"","aspects":["WHOLE"],"assets":[],"recordModificationDate":"2025-08-01","recordCreationDate":"2006-04-26","availableToBook":false}}