Alfred Tennyson, 1st Baron Tennyson

Sitterback to top

• Alfred Tennyson, 1st Baron Tennyson (1809-1892), Poet Laureate. Sitter in 86 portraits.

Artistback to top

• Julia Margaret Cameron (1815-1879), Pioneer photographer. Artist associated with 113 portraits, Sitter in 7 portraits.

This portraitback to top

Julia Margaret Cameron was one of the first and remains one of the greatest portrait photographers. The wife of a coffee-planter in Ceylon, she took up photography in her late forties, strongly influenced by the mid-Victorian fascination for High Renaissance painting and by the Romantic medievalism of the pre-Raphaelites. Before taking up photography, she had bought two cottages at Freshwater on the Isle of Wight, which she called 'Dimbola' after her house in Ceylon. Tennyson, who had long been a friend, was now a neighbour. He was to be one of her most important sources of inspiration, both in her illustrations for his Idylls of the King and, more generally, as a source for her style of poetic romance. She photographed him on a number of occasions. This was the version he liked best, writing under it, 'I prefer the Dirty Monk to the others of me.'

Linked publicationsback to top

• Victorian Portraits Resource Pack, p. 32
• Funnell, Peter, Victorian Portraits in the National Portrait Gallery Collection, 1996, p. 32
• Funnell, Peter (introduction); Marsh, Jan, A Guide to Victorian and Edwardian Portraits, 2011, p. 47
• Saumarez Smith, Charles, The National Portrait Gallery: An Illustrated Guide, 2000, p. 134
• Saumarez Smith, Charles, The National Portrait Gallery, 1997, p. 134

Linked displays and exhibitionsback to top

• Alfred, Lord Tennyson (30 March 2009 - 15 November 2009)