Summer Days 1866 - 1869

Curator: Julia Margaret Cameron captured this intimate group portrait, entitled "Summer Days," between 1866 and 1869. Editor: It has this wonderfully dreamy, almost hazy quality, doesn't it? Like a faded memory viewed through muslin. Melancholy seems to settle over the scene...are those children sad, or just tired? Curator: Cameron was deeply immersed in the aesthetics of Romanticism, which you certainly pick up on. This movement deeply influenced her artistic approach, especially her pursuit of capturing emotion. You see, she's really picturing ideals of beauty. Editor: Romanticism makes sense! It almost feels like a Pre-Raphaelite painting, those wistful expressions, the deliberate softness... I almost want to read poetry, something Tennyson, maybe? Curator: Well, she was known to mingle with literary figures, even making portraits of some like Tennyson. It seems likely it had an influence. In this work she uses collotype and photomontage, which create soft gradations. She manipulates the technology. Look, she's purposefully avoided sharp focus to heighten that sense of feeling. Editor: Yes, I can see that choice in the blurring around the edges. It almost pulls the subjects out of time. Do you know who they were, the models, I mean? Curator: Many of her sitters were close friends or family members. While the older woman is identifiable, most likely one of the artist's nieces, the identity of the children remains more speculative, possibly local children from her community. Editor: I’m drawn to those children though. It is interesting that even without a sense of who they are as individual children, they carry the history of girlhood with them. An aura, maybe. Or the idealized version anyway. It works to transcend. Curator: Absolutely. And if you note, in Romantic art women and children carried a very distinct weight of symbolism. They were representations of innocence, beauty, closeness to nature. I find that this composition reflects those sensibilities, embedding specific figures into this enduring symbolism. Editor: What you said makes it cohere on a different level! All the same, that central child...something in their eye seems knowing beyond their years. Anyway, a lovely find to contemplate for a few moments in our fast-paced lives! Curator: I quite agree; it offers such an intriguing glimpse into the artist’s emotional world, filtered through the romantic lens of her time.