La Madonna Riposata

Julia Margaret Cameron

1864 · Albumen silver print from glass negative · Photographs

In the first two years of Cameron’s photography, religious themes held an important place alongside portraiture. The remarkably expressive and emotionally versatile Mary Hillier was often cast as the Virgin Mary, costumed and posed in scenes reminiscent of Italian painting. The close physical and spiritual bond of mother and child that is illustrated so vividly in these pictures may have been especially poignant for Cameron. She was, after all, given her first camera at Christmas 1863 by her daughter and son-in-law as they moved away and left this mother of six, in today’s vernacular, an “empty nester.”

Artist

Julia Margaret Cameron

Date

1864

Medium

Albumen silver print from glass negative

Department

Photographs

Credit line

Harris Brisbane Dick Fund, 1941