May Prinsep

In the late summer and fall of 1870 Julia Margaret Cameron made several stately three-quarter-length portraits of her niece May Prinsep (1853-1931). In this series Cameron’s imagery is closer to Pre-Raphaelite iconography than in any of her earlier work. Some of the portraits were titled simply A Pre-Raphaelite Study, as if to underscore Cameron’s consciousness of her experimentation in this idiom. She registered a large group for copyright in October 1870 and evidently hoped they would be a commercial success.

The pose adopted by the model is very similar to William Holman Hunt’s Isabella and the Pot of Basil (1866-68). This painting, now housed at the Laing Gallery in Newcastle upon Tyne, gained great popularity in the period through an engraving by Auguste-Thomas-Marie Blanchard. The print, which was published by Gambart in May 1869, enjoyed wide circulation and was much admired by the editor of the Art Journal, who described it as “thoroughly imbued with all the best principles of art.”

Prinsep stands in a space that has been prepared by casually draping furniture with cloth. Her head is dramatically tilted, allowing her hair to cascade to below her waist. She wears exotic jewelry and an elegant, voluminous dress tied with a cord sash. The mount of this print is inscribed “For Val,” indicating that it was intended for the model’s brother, Valentine Prinsep (1839-1904), who studied with George Frederick Watts and later became a distinguished painter himself.

The Getty’s collection includes at least ten other photographs of May Prinsep by Cameron (see 84.XM.349.18, 84.XM.443.34, 84.XM.443.36, 84.XM.443.38, 84.XM.443.59, 84.XM.443.76, 84.XM.636.5, 84.XO.732.2.7, 84.XO.732.2.8).

Julian Cox. Julia Margaret Cameron, In Focus: From the J. Paul Getty Museum (Los Angeles: J. Paul Getty Museum, 1996), 80. ©1996 The J. Paul Getty Museum.