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Julia Margaret Cameron
Portrait of Charles Darwin, signed by Darwin and by Cameron
1868
Carte de visite, lithograph gold border
The 19th Century Rare Book and Photograph Shop
LL/102663
Iconic signed Darwin photograph “I like this photograph much better than any other which has been taken of me.”
Julia Margaret Cameron’s portrait of Darwin is the most famous photograph of a 19th-century scientist. Darwin remarked, “I like this photograph very much better than any other which has been taken of me.”
In 1868, Darwin and his family traveled to the Isle of Wight, both for a long holiday and to aid in his recuperation from a recent illness. The Darwins rented a house from Cameron and were immediately charmed by the photographer:
“She received the whole family with open-hearted kindness and hospitality, and Darwin always retained a warm feeling of friendship for her. When they left she came to see them off, loading them with presents of photographs. Moved, Darwin said: ‘Mrs. Cameron, there are sixteen people in this house, all in love with you.’ Darwin paid her for her portraits of him, and as the Camerons had by that time lost a great deal of money through the continued failure of the coffee crop, she gladly accepted payment and ran boasting to her husband, ‘Look, Charles, what a lot of money!’” (Gernsheim, Julia Margaret Cameron).
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