蘇るアリスなど

Maev Kennedy “Carroll's portraits of Alice to go on display in birth of art photography show” https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2017/aug/22/carrolls-portraits-alice-birth-of-art-photography-exhibition

来年３月から倫敦のナショナル・ポートレート・ギャラリー*1で開催されるVictorian Giants: the Birth of Art Photographyの話。
その目玉の一つはルイス・キャロル自身によるAlice Liddellのポートレート。勿論、あの『不思議の国のアリス』*2の「アリス」のモデル。 また、Julia Margaret Cameronが撮った大人のアリスの肖像も展示される。

不思議の国のアリス (角川文庫クラシックス)

Alice in Wonderland (Best-Loved Classics)

アリス・イン・ワンダーランド [DVD]

しかしながら、この展覧会の本当の目玉は別のところにあるようだ。瑞典生まれの写真家Oscar Gustav Rejlander*3の作品。1875年に死んでから初めての公開になるのだという。

Rejlander is now much less famous than his followers, but they all learned from him and discussed their work with him over the years.

The Swede has been describe as the father of art photography, and even the father of Photoshop, for his complex montages. These included the epic 1857 Two Ways of Life, which is composed from 30 separate negatives, and had to be printed across two sheets. The work shows one young person choosing the Victorian virtues of marriage and domesticity, while the other rushes towards the more beguiling life of lust, gambling and idleness.

It raised eyebrows in the 19th century because of the number of barely draped females, but Queen Victoria was sufficiently impressed to buy a copy as a birthday present for her husband, Albert.

Rejlander remains a slightly mysterious figure. He is believed to have been born in Sweden in 1813, moved to Rome and trained as a painter. He then moved to England in the 1840s and switched to photography allegedly after a single afternoon’s training by a former valet of Henry Fox Talbot, another pioneer who invented a means of permanently fixing a photographic image.

When he died in 1875 his obituary in the Photographic News admitted: “Of the early life of Mr Rejlander, we have but a brief record, derived from his incidental remarks in conversation.” His grave in Kensal Green cemetery, north-west London, was only marked with a memorial stone four years ago.

*1:http://www.npg.org.uk/ See eg. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Portrait_Gallery,_London https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E3%83%8A%E3%82%B7%E3%83%A7%E3%83%8A%E3%83%AB%E3%83%BB%E3%83%9D%E3%83%BC%E3%83%88%E3%83%AC%E3%83%BC%E3%83%88%E3%83%BB%E3%82%AE%E3%83%A3%E3%83%A9%E3%83%AA%E3%83%BC

*2:See also http://d.hatena.ne.jp/sumita-m/20081208/1228737250 http://d.hatena.ne.jp/sumita-m/20150317/1426623462 http://d.hatena.ne.jp/sumita-m/20150614/1434302584 http://d.hatena.ne.jp/sumita-m/20160114/1452790690 http://d.hatena.ne.jp/sumita-m/20160803/1470203025 http://d.hatena.ne.jp/sumita-m/20160917/1474091544 http://d.hatena.ne.jp/sumita-m/20170401/1491023167

*3:See eg. Mark Brown “Gallery buys rare album by Victorian photographic pioneer” https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2016/may/09/national-portrait-gallery-oscar-gustav-rejlander-album-