Lady

Hawarden

&

Her

Children

Clementina Elphinstone Fleeming, c 1838

Lady Hawarden was born Clementina Elphinstone Fleeming in 1822. In 1845, she married Cornwallis Maude, 4th Viscount Hawarden. Around 1857, Hawarden began taking photographs, and two years later the family moved to 5 Princes Garden, Kensington. From then on, her adolescent daughters, in the spaces of her London home were the focus of her photographic work.

Hawarden exhibited at the Photographic Society of London in 1863 and 1864. The author Lewis Carroll became an admirer and collector of her work. In 1865, Hawarden died suddenly of pneumonia at the age of 42. The eldest of her children was just nineteen. It is thought that exposure to chemicals used in photographic development may have weakened her immune system.

As an artist, Clementina Hawarden was overlooked for years, but is now recognized and respected as one of Britain’s first female photographers. Ninety percent of Hawarden’s work is in a collection at the V & A Museumjust blocks from the site of Hawarden’s former home.

TitleLady Hawarden, about 1861-62

CHILDREN

Between 1846 and 1864, Hawarden gave birth to ten children.

Eight survived infancy, seven of which were girls. As

Hawarden grew as an artist, her adolescent daughters, in the

spaces of their home, became the focus of her work.

• Isabella Grace “Trotty” b.1846-

• Clementina Maude Chukky”

b.1847-

• Florence Elizabeth “Bo” b.1849-

• Cornwallis “Toby” b.1852-

• Kathleen “Tibby” b.1854-

• Beatrix Emma b.5/4, 1856-d.8/4

1856

• Elphinstone Agnes “Eppy”

b.1857

• Eustance Mountstuart b.12/6,

1859-

• d.12/7, 1859

• Leucha Diana b.1860

• Antonia Lillian “Tony” b.1864

TitleTrotty Chukky Epp

yBo

HOME

During the years 1859-64,

Hawarden’s home was her

studio, and the interior and

exterior spaces of 5 Princes

Gardens in Kensington

featured prominently in her

work. The home was a

stage setting, and her

children were her models.

The site of the house, which

was demolished in the late

1950’s, is across from the V

& A Museum and now part

of the Imperial College of

London.Isabella Grace on the balcony,

early 1860’sTitle

In 1864, Lewis Carroll purchased

five photographs by Hawarden,

which were shown at the

Photographic Society of

London’s exhibit, One of the

photographs he bought was an

image of Isabella Grace peering

into a mirror. Carroll wrote in his

diary, after visiting the exhibition,

that he “did not admire Mrs.

Cameron’s large heads taken out

of focus. The best of the life ones

were Lady Hawarden’s.” He

placed the five photographs in an

album titled “Professional and

Other Photographs”. The album

is now at the University of Texas

at Austin.

Title

Lewis Carroll holding a lens, c.1863

EXTERIOR

The balcony and terraces of

Hawarden’s home were

frequently used as settings for

her compositions. Hawarden

seems particularly drawn to

the spaces in-between the

domestic interior and the world

outside. This theme is doubled

in that Hawarden daughters

are captured in-between

girlhood and adulthood.

Mirrors, windows, and glass

doorways act as a translucent

fascia between the two worlds.

Isabella Grace & Clementina Maude

Title

INTERIOR

Hawarden stripped the first floor

rooms of her home of Victorian

excess, and used them as her

studio spaces, making use of

light and mirrors in her

compositions. Here, the closed

and confining, female world of

the wealthy is brought into view.

While many male photographers

were working in far away, exotic

locations, Hawarden’s oeuvre

was one of domesticity. Her

explorations were of the inner

female world - brought into

focus through the spaces of the

home. Title

Clementina Maude, about 1863-1864

CHUKKY

The photogenic

Clementina Maude, or

“Chukky” appears to

have been her

mother’s preferred

model. She is often

photographed acting

out scenes of

Victorian

preoccupations, such

as occultism, and

dressed in theatrical

costume, alongside

her sisters Isabella

Grace and Florence

Elizabeth.

Title

TROTTY

Hawarden’s work has

strong connections to

fashion photography. In

this image

Isabella Grace, or

“Trotty”, on the left, is

dressed in the height of

style. Florence

Elizabeth reflects and

doubles her sister’s

pose, acting as a light

and airy counterpoint to

Isabella Grace’s dark

formality.TitleIsabella Grace & Florence Elizabeth,

c. 1864

BO

Florence Elizabeth, or “Bo”, is shown here in an

1861 uncut stereoscopic view with her sister

Clementina Maude. Hawarden played with

drapery, light, and shadows, much in the same

way as seventeeth century Dutch painters.Title

EPPY

Although Hawarden’s

three eldest daughters

(Clementina Maude,

Isabella Grace &

Florence Elizabeth) were

her principle models from

1859-1864, we also

begin to see Elfinstone

Agnes, or “Eppy,

emerging as a subject.

Title

Elphinstone Agnes c. 1859-1861

MIRROR

Isabella Grace c. 1864

Title

Hawarden often

photographed her

daughters in front of

mirrors, using the device

to explore notions of the

double.

This image is one of five

prints, Lewis Carroll

bought in 1864. It is not

difficult to see the

connection to Carroll’s

book, Through the

Looking Glass, published in 1871.

DOUBLE

Start

Clementina Maude c. 1863

Hawarden was

preoccupied with the

notion of the

doppelganger. She

frequently employed

mirrors to “twin” her

daughters, composing

the reflections so that

they appeared to be

different, or occupying

a different space altogether.

After her death, Hawarden’s name disappeared from the

photographic journals, and it by mere coincidence that she

has been restored her place in the history of photography. In

1939, Hawarden’s grandaughter, Lady Clementina

Tottenham, visited an exhibition held at the V & A Museum

marking the 100th anniversary of the invention of

photography. Lady Tottenham was taken aback that her

grandmother was not represented in the show,.When she

learned from the curator that the museum had no examples

of her work, she spontaneously made a donation of the 775

prints in the family’s possession. Over the years, the prints

had been pasted into albums, and then rather violently

removed, which accounts for their rough condition. The

collection has been digitized and can be viewed at the V & A

Museum.

I cite the V & A Museum and Lady Hawarden: Studies from Life 1867-1864.

Aperture, 1999 for much of the information in this presentation. All images

Title