| Julia Margaret Cameron King Lear Alotting His Kingdom to His Three Daughters 1872 Albumen silver print, from glass negative 13 1/8 × 11 1/16 in. (33.4 × 28.1 cm) (image) 18 1/2 × 14 7/8 in. (47 × 37.8 cm) (mount) Metropolitan Museum of Art Bequest of Maurice B. Sendak, 2012, Accession Number: 2013.159.3 LL/77574 Curatorial description (Accessed: 21 Sept 2017)
The three Liddell sisters—Lorina, Elizabeth, and Alice—posed with the photographer’s husband playing the tragically deceived King Lear in one of Cameron’s few Shakespearean compositions. Goneril and Regan whisper false flattery in the aging king’s ear while the truly devoted but disinherited Cordelia—here unadorned and dressed in white—stands before him, an embodiment of disillusioned innocence.
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