 1815 - 1879 (64 years)
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| Name |
Julia Margaret Pattle |
| Suffix |
(Margaret Cameron) |
| Born |
11 Jun 1815 |
Calcutta, British India  |
| 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 |
| Person ID |
I13449 |
Simpson & Elder |
| Last Modified |
30 Aug 2013 |
| Family |
Charles Hay Cameron, b. 11 Feb 1795, Highlands, Scotland , d. 8 May 1880, Glencairn Estate, Newara Elluja, Dikoya Valley, Ceylon (Age 85 years) |
| Married |
1 Feb 1838 |
Calcutta, India |
| Children |
| + | 1. Julia Hay Cameron, b. 27 Dec 1838, Calcutta, West Bengal, India , d. 3 Oct 1873 (Age 34 years) |
| + | 2. Lieut.-Col. Eugene Hay Cameron, b. 12 Feb 1840, Garden Reach, Calcutta, West Bengal, India , d. 14 Feb 1885, At sea (Age 45 years) |
| | 3. Ewen Wrottesley Hay Cameron, b. 23 Dec 1843, Chowringhee, West Bengal, India , d. 29 Dec 1889, Colombo, Ceylon (Age 46 years) |
| | 4. Hardinge Hay Cameron, b. 1846, Calcutta, West Bengal, India , d. 16 Sep 1911, Oxford (Age 65 years) |
| | 5. Charles Hay Cameron, b. 9 Feb 1849, London , d. 14 Aug 1891, Rosenbad Burtscheid, Germany (Age 42 years) |
| | 6. Henry Herschel Hay Cameron, b. 20 Jan 1852, East Sheen, Surrey , d. 1911, Croydon, Surrey (Age 58 years) |
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| Last Modified |
16 Aug 2013 |
| Family ID |
F750 |
Group Sheet |
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