DOI issue:
No.9 (December, 1893)
DOI article:W., G.: Photographic portraiture: an interview with Mr. H. H. Hay Cameron
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.17189#0099
Photographic Portraiture
artist whose portrait of Mr. Irving as " Becket," " And that superb monochrome, Orpheus and
to take a solitary instance, is as familiar as one of Eurydice ? "
the pictures of the year at the Royal Academy. " Ves, that is one of Mr. Watts's. I have re-
" Do you confine yourself to portraiture ? " productions of most of his pictures."
" Oh no, these reproductions of the extremely " Are not his pictures difficult to manage,
beautiful drawings by the late Marchioness of especially those rainbow-like colours in such works
Waterford are some of the last pictures we have as Uldra 1"
copied " (and he opened an album containing a " That one, the Three Goddesses, which is in a
large number of reproductions from originals by similar key, was difficult certainly; I took seven or
" the first amateur in Europe," as Mr. G. F. Watts eight before I was satisfied—you see the result,"
is reported to have styled her; but to these The showing me a picture that betrayed the peculiar
Studio hopes to return on some future occasion), qualities of a " Watts " in every inch of its surface.
" Here (turning to a framed picture near) is a fine " You rank Watts very highly ? "
portrait of Bonnie Prince Charlie. It is attributed Mr. Cameron smiled assent in a way that spoke
to Peter Lely, but is certainly stronger than most volumes, and continued, " This, Thetis, an un-
cf his works; like this one of Claverhouse, it finished study, is from an oil painting not yet ex-
belongs to Stonyhurst College. We have taken hibited, which I turned out from a store cupboard
photographs of a very large number of historic when I was staying with the artist lately. Is it not
portraits during recent years, chiefly in Her good? What a fine statue it would make."
Majesty's and other private collections ; in fact, I To pass from these reproductions to the modern
may say we have a new portrait gallery of English portraits of celebrities and people of no impor-
history." tance which hung on the walls of the gallery was
no shock; and conscious of
how much such praise involves
when speaking of photographs,
it can only be recorded cauti-
ously with deliberate meaning,
that I felt Mr. Cameron has
succeeded in imparting to his
portraits no little of that dis-
tinction which lifts a " Rem-
brandt," a "Franz Hals," or a
" Watts " portrait above their
fellows. Not only in the
" Becket," or in a recent
portrait of Mr. Watts himself,
but in a score of others the
same fine selection of facts
that one has deemed hitherto
the unassailable prerogative of
the painter, faced you from the
untouched prints." Studying
photographs that are foolishly
deemed to be an automatic
produce of a machine, it was
hard to cling to one's belief
that the painter had powers
denied to the wielder of the
lens ; it seemed rather that the
brain directing the lens might
produce work hardly less mas-
terly than when the brush is
directed by the brain.
MRS. HUGH E. H. HOARE. FROM A PHOTOGRAPH BY H. H. HAY CAMERON On my Speaking of the
37
artist whose portrait of Mr. Irving as " Becket," " And that superb monochrome, Orpheus and
to take a solitary instance, is as familiar as one of Eurydice ? "
the pictures of the year at the Royal Academy. " Ves, that is one of Mr. Watts's. I have re-
" Do you confine yourself to portraiture ? " productions of most of his pictures."
" Oh no, these reproductions of the extremely " Are not his pictures difficult to manage,
beautiful drawings by the late Marchioness of especially those rainbow-like colours in such works
Waterford are some of the last pictures we have as Uldra 1"
copied " (and he opened an album containing a " That one, the Three Goddesses, which is in a
large number of reproductions from originals by similar key, was difficult certainly; I took seven or
" the first amateur in Europe," as Mr. G. F. Watts eight before I was satisfied—you see the result,"
is reported to have styled her; but to these The showing me a picture that betrayed the peculiar
Studio hopes to return on some future occasion), qualities of a " Watts " in every inch of its surface.
" Here (turning to a framed picture near) is a fine " You rank Watts very highly ? "
portrait of Bonnie Prince Charlie. It is attributed Mr. Cameron smiled assent in a way that spoke
to Peter Lely, but is certainly stronger than most volumes, and continued, " This, Thetis, an un-
cf his works; like this one of Claverhouse, it finished study, is from an oil painting not yet ex-
belongs to Stonyhurst College. We have taken hibited, which I turned out from a store cupboard
photographs of a very large number of historic when I was staying with the artist lately. Is it not
portraits during recent years, chiefly in Her good? What a fine statue it would make."
Majesty's and other private collections ; in fact, I To pass from these reproductions to the modern
may say we have a new portrait gallery of English portraits of celebrities and people of no impor-
history." tance which hung on the walls of the gallery was
no shock; and conscious of
how much such praise involves
when speaking of photographs,
it can only be recorded cauti-
ously with deliberate meaning,
that I felt Mr. Cameron has
succeeded in imparting to his
portraits no little of that dis-
tinction which lifts a " Rem-
brandt," a "Franz Hals," or a
" Watts " portrait above their
fellows. Not only in the
" Becket," or in a recent
portrait of Mr. Watts himself,
but in a score of others the
same fine selection of facts
that one has deemed hitherto
the unassailable prerogative of
the painter, faced you from the
untouched prints." Studying
photographs that are foolishly
deemed to be an automatic
produce of a machine, it was
hard to cling to one's belief
that the painter had powers
denied to the wielder of the
lens ; it seemed rather that the
brain directing the lens might
produce work hardly less mas-
terly than when the brush is
directed by the brain.
MRS. HUGH E. H. HOARE. FROM A PHOTOGRAPH BY H. H. HAY CAMERON On my Speaking of the
37