The Mountain Nymph, Sweet Liberty

June 1866

Julia Margaret Cameron

Artist, British, 1815 - 1879

The head and shoulders of a young woman with pale skin and long hair nearly fill this vertical, sepia-toned photograph. Shown against a dark background, she looks directly at us. Her nose is straight and her lips closed. Wavy curls piled over her forehead suggest that her hair is partially pulled back or pinned up around her oval face, and it falls behind her shoulders. Her garment has wide lapels and is worn over patterned clothing.

Media Options

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Artwork overview

  • Medium

    albumen print

  • Credit Line

    New Century Fund

  • Dimensions

    overall: 36.1 x 26.7 cm (14 3/16 x 10 1/2 in.)

  • Accession

    1997.97.1

Artwork history & notes

Provenance

Mr. William Rubel, Santa Cruz, CA; purchased with donated funds by NGA, 1997.

Associated Names

Exhibition History

1982

  • Masterworks of Photography From the Rubel Collection, The Crocker Art Museum, Sacramento [California], 1982: no. 10, pl. 27.

1999

  • Photographs from the Collection, National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1999.

2000

  • Art for the Nation: Collecting for a New Century, National Gallery of Art, Washington, 2000-2001.

2010

  • The Pre-Raphaelite Lens: British Photography and Painting, 1848 - 1875, National Gallery of Art, Washington; Musée d'Orsay, Paris, 2010 - 2011, no. 67.

2015

  • In Light of the Past: Celebrating Twenty-Five Years of Collecting Photographs at the National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC, May 3 – July 26, 2015

Bibliography

1974

  • Mrs. Cameron's Photographs from the Life. Exh. cat. Stanford University Museum of Art. Stanford [California], 1974: pp. 9, 30.

1975

  • Ford, Colin. The Cameron Collection: An Album of Photographs by Julia Margaret Cameron Presented to Sir John Herschel. London, 1975: pp. 18-19, 105, pl. 82.

  • Gernsheim, Helmut.Julia Margaret Cameron Her Life and Photographic Work. New York, 1975: p. 157.

1982

  • Masterworks of Photography From the Rubel Collection. Exh. cat. The Crocker Art Museum. Sacramento [California], 1982: no. 10, pl. 27.

1984

  • Weaver, Mike. Julia Margaret Cameron 1815-1875. London, 1984: pp. 132-133.

1986

  • Lukitsh, Joanne. Julia Margaret Cameron: Her Work and Career. Rochester, 1986: pp. 37, 39, 80, 91, 97.

1992

  • Roberts, Pam. Julia Margaret Cameron: A Triumph Over Criticism. In Graham Clarke (ed.) The Portrait in Photography. London, 1992: p. 58.

1996

  • Julia Margaret Cameron. In Focus: Photographs from the J. Paul Getty Museum. Los Angeles, 1996: pp. 52-53.

  • Hamilton, Violet. Annals of My Glass House: Photographs by Julia Margaret Cameron. Ex. Cat. Ruth Chandler Williamson Gallery, Scripps College. Seattle, 1996: pp. 31-32.

1997

  • Kraus, Jr., Hans P. Sun Pictures: Catalogue Eight, The Rubel Collection. New York, 1997: pp. 58-59, 62.

1998

  • Wolf, Sylvia, et al.Julia Margaret Cameron's Women. New Haven, 1998: pp. 114-115, 222, 231.

Inscriptions

by later hand, on mount, lower left in graphite: A [circled]; on verso, by later hand, upper left in graphite: E

Markings

BS: Colnagi

Wikidata ID

Q64156130

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