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

Instead of asking her oft-photographed maid, model, and photographic assistant, Mary Hillier, to be the model for the Mountain Nymph, Cameron chose a "Mrs. Keene," about whom little is known. Cameron may have instructed Mrs. Keene to loosen her hair for the effect of the photograph. ("Proper" Victorian women wore their hair tied back in a tidy bun.) Flowing, untamed hair is common in Cameron's imagery of women; it gave her models an air of abandon, if not sensuality.