Snapshot: ‘Clementina Maude’ (circa 1862)

‘Clementina Maude’ (circa 1862)

Born in 1822 to a British admiral father and Spanish mother, Hawarden is one of the earliest female Victorian photographers. She exhibited frequently at the Photographic Society in the early 1860s, where she was elected as member, earning her several silver prizes and acclaim from Oscar Rejlander and Lewis Carroll. From 1862 she transformed a floor of her Kensington home into a studio, dressing up her daughters in costume tableaux, documenting the rituals of upper-middle-class Victorian life.

Rejlander remarked that Hawarden “aimed at elegant, and if possible, idealised truth.” This image of the artist’s daughter, Clementina Maude, part of a newly discovered collection of 37 photographs on sale at Bonhams on March 19 (estimate: £100,000 to £150,000), is characteristic of her romantic, staged portraits. Rather than focusing on their faces, these untitled studies are carefully orchestrated with props and clothing, and make sophisticated use of natural light. Featuring women in provocative poses or as doppelgangers, Hawarden’s prints shifted the parameters for art photography.

www.bonhams.com