Mrs. Cameron's Photographs. 33 



portrait which every one of artistic perception is so glad to 

 possess. 



Those of our readers who live in, or visit London will, no 

 doubt, go to Coinaghi's, and look through the large collection 

 of Mrs. Cameron's works, which are on sale at very moderate 

 prices, and we recommend them to pay particular attention to 

 her dramatic and composition pieces. Some effective theatrical 

 pieces, with portraits of popular actors, have often been taken 

 by the ordinary photographers, but Mrs. Cameron has set to 

 work in a different way, and has made her pictures by getting 

 her friends or acquaintances to form tableaux vivants, and then 

 photographing them with her peculiar skill. We can only 

 allude to this important branch of her new art, one of the 

 finest specimens of which is a " Prospero and Miranda/' 

 marked " from life." This piece will be a great favourite as 

 it becomes known, because it tells its tale so forcibly, and is 

 remarkably pleasing in its character. A fine old Prospero, 

 with vigorous features, long white beard, and intellectually- 

 developed forehead, recounts to an intensely-listening, earnest- 

 looking Miranda the story of her birth, and his expulsion 

 from his dukedom. At the moment of the picture, Prospero 

 is standing up, and Miranda, leaning forward, clasps one of his 

 hands as if to give assurance that her soul was in his talc. 

 The light glances down Prospero' s forehead with its strong- 

 lines of thought, on Miranda's face, and on a portion of her 

 simple dress. The background is very dark, and while 

 Miranda's figure is distinct, Prospero's is only indicated — not 

 shown. We have very few artists who could paint half so line 

 a picture of the scene as Mrs. Cameron has given us in this 

 piece. We could fancy she had fished up a leaf of Prospero's 

 " drowned" book, and rescued his staff from its burial-place 

 " certain fathoms in the earth," when we notice the skill with 

 which in this case, and in " Queen Esther," and several others 

 we might name, she has composed her living pictures, and 

 made her apparatus give them a permanent form. 



It will soon become the fashion to admire these productions. 

 Their novel merit now charms the few who know how to think 

 for themselves on matters of art, and the many will bring 

 their later, but useful honmge, when fashionable authorities 

 have told them it is the correct thing to do. Mrs. Cameron 

 has only to persevere, and she will found a schooh of " Came- 

 ronians," though not after the fashion of the grim sect so 

 named. Her productions are eminently genial, and from this 

 quality and from their beauty they will find their appropriate 

 resting-places in cultivated homes. 



VOL. XI. NO. I. D 



