Lady Hawarden

& Her

ChildrenClementina 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 Museum just blocks from the site of Hawarden’s former home.Titl

eLady 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

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Trotty Chukky Eppy

Bo

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’sTitl

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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.

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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

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INTERIORHawarden 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.

TitleClementina 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.

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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.

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Isabella 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. Titl

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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.

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Elphinstone Agnes c. 1859-1861

MIRROR

Isabella Grace c. 1864

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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

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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 courtesy of the same, with the exception of that of Lewis Carroll.

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