By The National Portrait Gallery’s extraordinary Photographs Collection includes over 250,000 photographic objects. Photography curator Sabina Jaskot-Gill delves into the Collection to select treasures from the medium’s first century, made by early pioneer photographers.
'Mrs Richard Hart-Davis as Ariel' by Madame Yevonde, Vivex colour print, 1935 NPG X11660
‘Be Original or Die’ was the motto of Madame Yevonde (1893-1975), who revolutionised studio portraiture. At a time when portraiture was overwhelmingly monochrome, Yevonde pioneered the Vivex colour process: she proclaimed, ‘If we are going to have colour photographs, for heaven’s sake let’s have a riot of colour.’ Inspired by a themed costume party, she used clothes and props to style society women as mythological subjects, photographed in vibrant colour. Here, Edith Hart-Davis represents Ariel, the magical ‘airy spirit’ of Shakespeare’s play, The Tempest.
Sarah Forbes Bonetta (Sarah Davies) by Camille Silvy, albumen print, 15 September 1862, NPG Ax61380
Camille Silvy (1834-1910) photographed royalty, aristocrats and celebrities in his Bayswater studio, offering a unique glimpse into nineteenth-century London society. This portrait, pasted into Silvy’s daybook, was taken to mark the wedding of Sarah Forbes Bonetta (later Davies, 1843-80). Held in captivity in West Africa, she was discharged to Captain Frederick Forbes, after he bargained to save the child, convincing the slave-trading monarch King Ghezo of Dahomey to send her as a ‘gift’ to Queen Victoria. On the journey to England she was stripped of her original name ‘Aina’, baptised ‘Sarah’ and given the name of Captain Forbes and his ship 'Bonetta'. Brought up under Victoria’s protection, Silvy’s portrait shows Bonetta taking her place in Victorian high society.
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Unknown young woman by Oscar Gustav Rejlander albumen print, 1863-1866, NPG P2011(26)
The expressive portraiture of Swedish émigré photographer Oscar Rejlander (1813-75) is exemplified in this delicate portrait of a pensive young woman. His new approach to art photography inspired photographers Julia Margaret Cameron and Lewis Carroll, and his portraits were used as studies by Pre-Raphaelite painters. Rejlander experimented with different approaches throughout his career – including composite image making – and in doing so shaped nineteenth century attitudes to art photography.
Charles Darwin by Julia Margaret Cameron, albumen print, 1868-1869, NPG P8
Julia Margaret Cameron (1815-1879) took up photography at the age of 48 and quickly became one of the leading photographers of her day. Photography was associated with objective description, but Cameron adopted a much more subjective approach, aiming to communicate the character of her sitters through use of variable focus and shallow depth of field, together with dramatic lighting. This portrait of naturalist and biologist Charles Darwin (1809-82) was taken at Cameron’s home on the Isle of Wight. His family thought it to be the best photograph taken of him.
Virginia Woolf by George Charles Beresford, platinum print, July 1902, NPG P221
George Charles Beresford (1864-1938) specialised in portraits of writers, artists and politicians, all photographed in his Knightsbridge studio. This contemplative portrait of Virigina Woolf (1882-1941) was taken in 1902 when she was just embarking on her literary career - she would become one of the major writers of English fiction. The portrait is printed with platinum salts, a technique which produces a rich range of nuanced tone and carefully delineates Woolf’s delicate features.
Lady Ottoline Morrell, by Baron Adolph de Meyer, half-plate autochrome, circa 1907, NPG P1099
Society hostess Lady Ottoline Morrell (1873-1938) was a patron of the arts and a keen amateur photographer herself. This Pictorialist inspired portrait was made by Baron Adolph de Meyer (1868-1946) using the new Autochrome process – coloured transparent images on glass. The dramatic use of lighting and composition, together with the luminous colours of the Autochrome process, capture Morrell’s dynamic personality. Dubbed ‘the Debussy of photography’, de Meyer would go on to become a pioneering fashion photographer for Vogue and Vanity Fair.
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Sandy Linton, his boat and his bairns by David Octavius Hill, and Robert Adamson, calotype, 1843-1848, NPG P6(199)
In photography’s first decade, David Octavious Hill (1802-1870) and Robert Adamson (1821-1848) collaborated on salted paper prints, made using writing paper. The texture of the paper meant images were not perfectly sharp or detailed – for Hill this was not a failing of the process, but ‘the very life of it’. Their photographs of fishermen and women in the village of Newhaven, near Edinburgh, are an early example of social documentary photography. Although the images required lengthy exposure times, with sitters holding poses for long periods, their portraits possess an impression of natural spontaneity.
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