Sir Galahad and the pale nun

Julia Margaret Cameron
Britain
1815 – 1879

Sir Galahad and the pale nun
plate IX from 'Idylls of the King and Other Poems' (published by Henry S. King, London, 1875)
1874
albumen-silver photograph
Place made
Freshwater, Isle of Wight, England
Geographical location
Isle of Wight
Medium
albumen-silver photograph
Dimensions
33.4 x 27.2 cm (image & sheet)
44.0 x 33.2 cm (support)
Credit line
Gift of Hon. Justice Kemeri Murray AO assisted by the Art Gallery of South Australia Foundation 2006
Accession number
20068Ph83
Signature and date
Signed and dated, l.r., pen & ink "Julia Margaret Cameron 1874".
Media category
Photograph
Collection area
British photographs

  • WALL LABEL: Public Image, Private Lives: Family, Friends and Self in Photography, 2016

     

     

    Sir Galahad and the Pale Nun is from Cameron’s narrative series, Idylls of the King, which draws on Arthurian legend, as expressed through Lord Tennyson’s collection of poems of the same name. Julia Margaret Cameron and Lord Tennyson, who was Poet Laureate to Queen Victoria, were neighbours and friends, initially in London, then during the 1860s at Freshwater on the Isle of Wight.

     

    The photograph features Mary Hillier, Julia Margaret Cameron’s housemaid and constant model, alongside an unknown youth.

     

    Julie Robinson, Senior Curator of Prints, Drawings & Photographs

     

  • [Newsletter] n.d. Adelaide: Art Gallery of South Australia.
    Art Gallery of South Australia Newsletter Vol. 6, no. 16 (Sept. 1985)-v. 6, no. 54 (Mar. 1989)