Julia Margaret Pattle, (Margaret Cameron)

Julia Margaret Pattle, (Margaret Cameron)

Female 1815 - 1879  (64 years)

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  • Name Julia Margaret Pattle 
    Suffix (Margaret Cameron) 
    Born 11 Jun 1815  Calcutta, British India Find all individuals with events at this location 
    Gender Female 
    Career Julia Margaret Pattle was born in British India, on June 11, 1815, the daughter of an official in the Bengal Civil Service and a descendant of the French aristocracy.
    After her early years she received an education in France and England, returning to India in 1834. Four years later, in 1838, she married Charles Hay Cameron, twenty years her senior. In 1848, after Charles retired, he and Julia returned to England where they raised five children, adding a sixth in 1857 when they adopted Mary Ryan. Through Julia's sister, Sarah Prinsep, the new arrivals cultivated a wide circle of elite, intellectual friends. It is this company of friends, family, and servants that Cameron used as models for her "tableux vivants".
    In 1860, the family business required Charles and his sons to return to Sri Lanka, at which time the remainder of the family took up residence in Freshwater, Isle of Wight. It was then that Cameron became a neighbor and close friend to Alfred Lord Tennyson and his family.
    By 1863, the coffee plantations, which provided the Camerons with the time and resources to entertain, began to suffer. Charles was again called away and, in his absence, Julia received a camera from her daughter and her son-in-law as a birthday gift. It is widely held that the young couple hoped to provide some diversion for her while Charles was attending to financial crises in Sri Lanka. Her daughter, Julia, may have been aware of Cameron's rudimentary interest in photography when she suggested "It may amuse you, mother, to try to photograph during your solitude at Freshwater".
    Julia tried enthusiastically. The newly discovered ability of the photograph to create and document beauty triggered a fashionable interest as well as a heated debate as to whether or not the medium constituted art. Cameron's view is clearly stated in a letter to Sir John Herschel, to whom she writes, "My aspirations are to ennoble Photography and to secure for it the character and uses of High Art by combining the real and ideal sacrificing nothing of Truth by all possible devotion to Poetry and beauty"
    The soft focus, which serves as her trademark, was initially achieved by accident. While critics may look back and see a life of eccentricity and self-indulgence, it is difficult to accept claims that Cameron had not intended her family to benefit from her endeavors.
    In an ironic twist of fate, the thoughtful gift she had received from her daughter was to become a source of solace. In 1873, ten years after receiving her first camera, Cameron lost her first and only biological daughter, Julia. Symbolic of Cameron's quieted spirit, there are no records of any published photographs in that year.
    More at http://theesotericcuriosa.blogspot.co.uk/2010/04/candid-cameron-life-work-of-julia.html 
    Died 26 Jun 1879  Glencairn Estate, Newara Elluja, Dikoya Valley, Ceylon Find all individuals with events at this location 
    Person ID I13449  Simpson & Elder
    Last Modified 30 Aug 2013 

    Father James Peter Pattle,   b. 1775,   d. 1845  (Age 70 years) 
    Mother Adeline de l'Étang,   b. 1793,   d. 11 Nov 1845, At sea Find all individuals with events at this location  (Age 52 years) 
    Family ID F746  Group Sheet

    Family Charles Hay Cameron,   b. 11 Feb 1795, Highlands, Scotland Find all individuals with events at this location,   d. 8 May 1880, Glencairn Estate, Newara Elluja, Dikoya Valley, Ceylon Find all individuals with events at this location  (Age 85 years) 
    Married 1 Feb 1838  Calcutta, India Find all individuals with events at this location 
    Children 
    +1. Julia Hay Cameron,   b. 27 Dec 1838, Calcutta, West Bengal, India Find all individuals with events at this location,   d. 3 Oct 1873  (Age 34 years)
    +2. Lieut.-Col. Eugene Hay Cameron,   b. 12 Feb 1840, Garden Reach, Calcutta, West Bengal, India Find all individuals with events at this location,   d. 14 Feb 1885, At sea Find all individuals with events at this location  (Age 45 years)
     3. Ewen Wrottesley Hay Cameron,   b. 23 Dec 1843, Chowringhee, West Bengal, India Find all individuals with events at this location,   d. 29 Dec 1889, Colombo, Ceylon Find all individuals with events at this location  (Age 46 years)
     4. Hardinge Hay Cameron,   b. 1846, Calcutta, West Bengal, India Find all individuals with events at this location,   d. 16 Sep 1911, Oxford Find all individuals with events at this location  (Age 65 years)
     5. Charles Hay Cameron,   b. 9 Feb 1849, London Find all individuals with events at this location,   d. 14 Aug 1891, Rosenbad Burtscheid, Germany Find all individuals with events at this location  (Age 42 years)
     6. Henry Herschel Hay Cameron,   b. 20 Jan 1852, East Sheen, Surrey Find all individuals with events at this location,   d. 1911, Croydon, Surrey Find all individuals with events at this location  (Age 58 years)
    Last Modified 16 Aug 2013 
    Family ID F750  Group Sheet

  • Photos
    Julia Margaret Cameron, by Henry Herschel Hay Cameron.
    Julia Margaret Cameron, by Henry Herschel Hay Cameron.
    Julia Margaret Pattle
    Julia Margaret Pattle
    'Julia Margaret Cameron and Her Children Charles and Henry'
    "Julia Margaret Cameron and Her Children Charles and Henry"
    Photograph by Lewis Carroll


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