[Cloisters of the Church of Saint John of the Kings, Toledo, Spain]

Charles Clifford

ca. 1858 · Albumen silver print from glass negative · Photographs

One of the legion of British photographers dispersed throughout the world during the early days of the medium, Clifford had the distinction of serving as official photographer to Queen Isabella II of Spain. The patronage was a blessing, for it facilitated his access to the great architectural monuments of Spain and gave him the freedom to practice his art. Saint John of the Kings was one of the best examples of High Gothic architecture in Spain. When Clifford photographed the church and its adjoining cloister, they were in need of repair because of damage incurred in the Napoleonic Wars. As a native Englishman, Clifford was imbued with Romantic notions of ruins--of their symbolic evidence of the grandeur of human aspirations and of their inevitably temporal nature.

Artist

Charles Clifford

Date

ca. 1858

Medium

Albumen silver print from glass negative

Department

Photographs

Credit line

Purchase, Harriette and Noel Levine Gift, 1989