Henry Taylor

October 10, 1867

Medium

Albumen silver print

Dimensions

34.4 × 27 cm

Status

In Museum Collection

Collect24 Art ID

C24-427482

> While Julia Margaret Cameron’s grand monumental portraits attracted much positive attention at exhibitions and in fine art circles, in the photographic press there were still some commentators who criticized the inadequacy of her technique. In the *Photographic Journal* review of the Universal Exhibition in Paris in 1867, Cameron’s contributions received a mixed response: “This lady has produced a number of fine studies; but her work is unequal, and in most cases the delineation of her heads is too indefinite. Her process is stated to be the result of an accident. . . . The lens could not do what the lady wanted it to do, and produced an image with a blurred delineation, so she strives for the blurred effect, and in many cases succeeds in turning out a head with a good deal of power in it, and with a softness of outline which is in singular contrast to the ordinary style of photographs. > > Cameron went to considerable lengths to declare that her pictures were the work of an artist. This portrait of the poet and playwright Sir Henry Taylor (1800-1886) is inscribed “not enlarged” to make it clear that the work is a study “from life,” achieved by direct contact printing from a ne…