Sappho (Mary Hillier)
Alternate TitleThe Pretty Housemaid
Artist
Julia Margaret Cameron
(English, born India, 1815 - 1879)
Date1865
MediumAlbumen print
DimensionsImage and sheet: 12 15/16 × 10 1/8 inches (32.86 × 25.72 cm)
Mount: 20 13/16 × 16 13/16 inches (52.86 × 42.7 cm)
Mount: 20 13/16 × 16 13/16 inches (52.86 × 42.7 cm)
Credit LineGift of the Hall Family Foundation
Object number2017.61.5
SignedAttributed on mat recto in unknown hand, lower right, in pencil: “by Mrs Cameron”;
Attributed on mount verso in unknown hand, lower left, in pencil: “Photograph by Mrs Cameron”
InscribedOn mat recto, lower right, in pencil: “(The pretty housemaid)”
MarkingsBlind stamp on mount recto, bottom center: “REGISTERED PHOTOGRAPH / SOLD BY / MESS.RS COLNAGHI [partially cut off – likely reads: “14 Pall Mall East”]”
On mat recto, upper left corner, in pencil: “11”, “8” [circled];
On mat recto, upper right corner, in pencil: “20x24”;
On mount verso, lower right, in pencil: “78.068”.
On View
Not on viewCollections
DescriptionProfile portrait in soft focus of a woman wearing a floral print top and a necklace with oval charms. Her hair is pulled back away from her face and she maintains a neutral expression.Exhibition HistoryRotation 25. The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, October 19, 2018- March 17, 2019, no cat.
At age 14, Mary Hillier (1847–1936) began working for Julia Margaret Cameron as a maid. Cameron described her as “one of the most beautiful and constant of my models, and in every manner of form has her face been reproduced, yet never has it been felt that the grace of the fashion of it has perished.” Hillier posed in many photographs in a variety of guises, including literary heroines, angels, Madonnas, and, here, as the classical poet Sappho (about 630–570 B.C.E.). Celebrated through the centuries for her poems in praise of love between women, Sappho was popular among artists and authors in Cameron’s time.
Purchased at Photographs No. 9150, Christie's, New York, NY, April 29, 1999, lot 116 by Howard Stein (1926-2011) , New York, NY, 1999;
His gift to The Joy of Giving Foundation, New York, NY;
Purchased at their sale The Odyssey of Collecting: Photographs from Joy of Giving Something, Phillips, New York, NY, April 4, 2017, lot 39 by The Hall Family Foundation, Kansas City, MO, 2017;
Their gift to The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, 2017.
His gift to The Joy of Giving Foundation, New York, NY;
Purchased at their sale The Odyssey of Collecting: Photographs from Joy of Giving Something, Phillips, New York, NY, April 4, 2017, lot 39 by The Hall Family Foundation, Kansas City, MO, 2017;
Their gift to The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, 2017.
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