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Julia Margaret Cameron
A Study
1865-1866
Albumen silver print, from glass negative
34.4 x 26.4 cm (13 9/16 x 10 3/8 in.)
Metropolitan Museum of Art
Bequest of James David Nelson, in memory of Samuel J. Wagstaff Jr., 1988, Accession Number: 1990.1074.3
LL/77594
Curatorial description (Accessed: 21 Sept 2017)
This image, also titled After Perugino / The Annunciation, is one of more than 130 religiously themed images inspired by Cameron’s deep Christian devotion and her artistic admiration of Italian painting of the early Renaissance. Such photographs adhere to traditional iconography only in the broadest sense. Here, for example, Cameron follows the precedent of paintings of the Annunciation in which the angel Gabriel presents a lily—symbol of purity—to the Virgin Mary. More important, however, Cameron’s sincerity of sentiment imbues her work with an aura of devotion and claims for it a place equal to sacred art of the past.
This print is inscribed For the Signor, indicating that it was a gift from Cameron to the painter G. F. Watts.
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