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Lot 38

DARWIN, CHARLES. 1809-1882.
Photograph Signed ("Ch. Darwin"),

21 September 2015, 13:00 EDT
New York

Sold for US$27,500 inc. premium

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DARWIN, CHARLES. 1809-1882.

Photograph Signed ("Ch. Darwin"), albumen print carte-de-visite on gilt-edged card by JULIA MARGARET CAMERON, [1868], signed by Darwin on lower margin; with imprint "From life copyright Julia Margaret Camerson" below image.

Important and powerful image of the great naturalist by the pioneer photographer, Julia Margaret Cameron (1815-1879). The portrait was taken in Freshwater, Isle of Wight where Darwin went for a month-long family holiday in the summer of 1868. Cameron lived in Freshwater and made the acquaintance of the family. "She received the whole family with open-hearted kindness and hospitality, and Darwin always retained a warm feeling of friendship for her. When they left she came to see them off, loading them with presents of photographs. Moved, Darwin said: 'Mrs. Cameron, there are sixteen people in this house, all in love with you.' Darwin paid her for her portraits of him, and as the Camerons had by that time lost a great deal of money through the continued failure of the coffee crop, she gladly accepted payment and ran boasting to her husband, 'Look, Charles, what a lot of money!'" (Gernsheim Julia Margaret Cameron: Her Life and Photographic Work, 1975).

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