Studio: international art (2.1894)

Photographic Portraiture

to Mrs. Cameron, said of the portrait of his friend keeping a constant stream upon them for some

Tennyson, " Had we such portraits of Shakespeare hours at a time."

and Milton we should know more of their own " Materials were more costly then ? "

selves. We should have better commentaries on " Yes, and my mother spared no expense. I

' Hamlet' and ' Comus' than any we now possess, have known her take eighteen negatives in a day, all

even as you will have secured for us a better com- failures perhaps except one. In that period five

mentary on 'Maud' and 'In Memoriam,' than minutes was an average time for the sitter to pose,

all our critics have given us or will give us." But Now people are spoiled, and expect their photograph

impossible as it is to linger over these, yet the taken so instantaneously that they cannot fix the

wonderful portrait of Mrs. Leslie Stephen cannot moment it occupies. I think the slower process

be passed in silence. If some of the others have had many advantages; it seemed to record the

the quality of Watts, this head might be shown to changes that passed over the sitter's face. Now

the world as an example of a type Burne- in a flash-light portrait you do not get a complete

Jones has made his own—the far removed smile, for example, but only a portion of one, and

intensity of gaze, and what has been playfully instead of a pleasant effect, it is often merely

called the " incurable remoteness " of his heroines, ludicrous. As an artist does not paint his sitter

no less than the peculiar beauty he has disco- with a momentary expression, but combines many
vered for his beggar in the
Cophetita and his Days of
Creation—in short, the type
we recognise as his highest
effort, which, it need hardly be
said, does not resemble the
often parodied visage with its
sharp-pointed chin and a pro-
file that appears to be built
up of concave curves. Here
was a head one would have
decided hastily could only have
come from the hand of Dante
Gabriel Rossetti, or his disciple,
Edward Burne - Jones ; yet
this portrait, which is as surely
a work of art as a drawing by mastef cyril wilde. from a photograph by h. h. hay cameron
either of those masters, is but

a mechanical presentation taken by a lady amateur moods in one, so it seems to me the camera

and printed by her faithful friend and devoted working less rapidly gave, as it were, an epitome of

servant. the changes, a composite photograph of a period,

Still turning over the masterly series, Mr. Cameron, not an instantaneous expression, which may or

pointing to a specially fine print of Tennyson, said, may not be characteristic of the sitter. Of course

" This is proof of the permanence of a silver print more failures occurred then by accidental change

which has been properly prepared. Taken twenty- of position."

seven years ago by my mother's friend, so well " Have these heads been enlarged ?" I asked,

known to every one who comes to this studio as " Certainly not, all were taken the size you see

' Little E,' it has been exposed to full daylight them, and untouched. If you imagine a sheet of

ever since ; yet so far from having faded, it has thick plate glass not merely the size (15x12) you

ripened and mellowed by time, so that to-day it is see, but allowing a somewhat wide margin for

far better than any fresh print from the negative trimming, you will realise that to handle it when

could be." wet, gingerly holding it between a finger and

" Do you attribute that result to the superior thumb, demanded no little physical energy from a

chemicals employed ? " lady."

" No, merely to careful washing, which removed "But of your own work, Mr. Cameron," I broke

the hyposulphite of soda. In those days the prints in, reluctantly leaving the scores of prints, each

were washed under a common pump, the gardener worth study, and yet anxious to see more by the
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