The Communion

Many of Julia Margaret Cameron’s portraits of women and group studies incorporating women and children include flowers or have the figures framed against floral backgrounds in order to enhance the narrative thrust of the representation. In a letter to Alfred, Lord Tennyson written in 1855, Cameron described a magnolia tree in the garden of her home in East Sheen, London, and its capacity to “send forth a scent that made the soul faint with a sense of the luxury of the world of flowers. I always think that flowers tell as much of the bounty of God’s love as the Firmament shows of His handiwork.

In the case of The Communion, an elegant spray of full-bloomed lily of the valley is boldly employed as a graphic element in the composition, skillfully framing the interaction of the figures. The inclusion of this blossom, which signifies purity and meekness, suggests that the scene represents the Annunciation. The unidentified youth plays the part of the angel Gabriel, who, bearing a lily, informs the Virgin (Mary Hillier) that she will bear a child. A similar floral motif frames the figures In Study-Madonna (Royal Photographic Society Collection, Victoria & Albert Museum, London). Here Mary nurses the youthful John the Baptist, who is draped in an animal skin and holds a cross, his traditional attributes. According to Mike Weaver’s Whisper of the Muse, John also acts as the angel of the Annunciation with the flowers signifying that Christ is not yet born.

Julian Cox. Julia Margaret Cameron, In Focus: From the J. Paul Getty Museum (Los Angeles: J. Paul Getty Museum, 1996), 84. ©1996 The J. Paul Getty Museum.