Mrs. Cameron's Photographs. 31 



give tlie sense of roundness, softness, and smoothness to the 

 cheek, the transparent shadowiness lurking amongst tresses of 

 hair — the varying tones of flesh colour — the suggestions of 

 life and movement, which delight us in real figures possessing 

 the requisite beauty, and in suitable positions, and which meet 

 us in the delineations of the great masters, are wanting in the 

 ordinary photograph, and have been marvellously introduced 

 by Mrs. Cameron, in her processes of photographic art. 



The most remarkable instance of this artist's success, is to 

 be found in the child's head, "Number 6 of the series of twelve 

 life-sized heads w and called " Alice." It has all the properties 

 of a fine sepia drawing by a great master. It is rich in 

 gradations of tint. The hair flows freely in fine masses, as if 

 the wind had caught it : stray locks have swept across the 

 forehead, and their delicate shadows give an exquisite softness 

 to the brow. Beautiful hair, left free, is one of the most poetic 

 of nature's productions, and very subtle and sympathetic are 

 the combinations of light and shade which it exhibits, and 

 which defy the efforts of ordinary artists to reproduce. Few 

 of the old painters did justice to hair. They usually painted 

 it in forms too stiff, and the ordinary photography reduces it 

 to wires, or threads. Alice's hair is a masterpiece of art, and 

 Mrs. Cameron has made her photographic apparatus succeed 

 in producing those delicate transparent shadows which sorely 

 test the manipulative skill of the oil painter. 



This head of "Alice" exemplifies other fine qualities 

 usually absent from photography. A good photographer of the 

 common sort seldom approaches a grand mode of treatment. 

 If his lights and shadows are strong and in conspicuous masses, 

 they are generally damaged in artistic effect by the violence of 

 their contrasts. The depths are too black, and the lights too 

 white, and there is a want of half-tones. Another common 

 photographic defect is giving too much prominence to detail, 

 as the early artists did, and as the modern Pre-Raphaelites 

 continue to do. Mrs. Cameron has advanced photography 

 beyond this stage. In u Alice," and in other productions, she 

 has introduced breadth and generalization ; her contrasts are 

 strong, but not violent, and she has been singularly successful 

 with half-tones. The qualities we have mentioned belong to 

 what we may call the technical, or manipulative branch of 

 art ; and they are essentials to success ; but something more is 

 wanted : a true work of art is also a work of miud, and Mrs. 

 Cameron has rescued photography from mere copying. In her 

 life-sized heads, as well as in her composition pieces, she has 

 evinced rare faculties of dealing with the emotions of her 

 sitters. She does not take them anyhow, but draws them out, 

 and induces in them such a condition of mind and feeling as 



