The Mountain Nymph, Sweet Liberty by Julia Margaret Cameron

Julia Margaret Cameron, The Mountain Nymph, Sweet Liberty, June 1866, albumen print from collodion negative, National Gallery of Art, Washington, New Century Fund 1997.97.1

A little farouche (wild) and égarée (lost)...as if first let loose and half afraid that it was too good to last.

—Sir John Herschel, describing the Mountain Nymph in 1866

To portray the Mountain Nymph in a photograph, Cameron made several choices. Rather than composing a full-length portrait of a figure in a detailed woodland setting (as Milton described in the poem), she concentrated on the model's face and hair, filling the entire frame with her subject's head and shoulders. Cameron chose a youthful, unlined face, and because she included no hint of the time period through dress or background detail, the "Nymph" transcends time, entering the realm of the ideal.