Modelling for Mrs Cameron; Virginia's Aunt.

Dearest Emily,

A few weeks ago, our lovely neighbouring Robin Hood of the Charity Shops hereabouts- had finished distributing her spoils amongst us all- and descended upon Dimbola with a rather fabulous chair. It was a pre-Arts and Crafts style of design- and rather Queen of Hearts too- to my rather biased eye.
I like chairs Em, I always imagine who chose them, and where they were, and who's favourite chair this was.
I can't show you this yet Em, because just as soon as Robina de Hood had rushed in with it- she rushed back out again to take it to be restored, prior to taking up residence at Dimbola- so we will have to wait a bit.

However, the owner of said piece of furniture is reputed to have been this lovely lady...

Julia Stephen (previously Duckworth- here in widows weeds) is photographed here by her namesake Aunt- our Julia Margaret Cameron in part of a session taken in 1874. This particular image from the session- I would like to think would be the one Mrs C chose as her best one (though actually it was out of focus, so I had to redraw the face for you.) But, Em- for me it's a good example of how directional our Julia really was- and what her vision of photography 'as an art-form' was aiming at. Look at the composition Em- way way way before Fashion photography- Julia Stephen certainly strikes a pose! Left hand on hip, with elegant fingers hitching up the side of her skirt, and right hand holding lorgnettes perhaps, accentuate a waisted taffeta dress and a blank, but suggestionably haughty stare.

When history then allows us the knowledge that this woman was Virginia Woolf's mother- it isn't a giant leap of faith to consider how much our colourful and ebullient Julia's influence shaped the Bloomsbury aesthetic. Oh, how I wish I could have seen Vanessa and Virginia's 'dressing up box'. Did they play with brightly coloured Indian silk dresses and shawls that belonged to their Great Aunts- the famed 'Pattle Sisters'?. Julia's fabulous, but frenetic legacy of pioneering photography doesn't allow us the vision of the colours she loved-or the style they all developed- but it's fun trying to find out Em- and increasingly the trail of influences lays backwards to the Freshwater Circle at the Bay here in the 1860's.

A lovely guest staying here at the house, said last night that after the third generation- people can cease to be 'people', and be seen merely as 'historical figures'. Luckily, for me- our Julia had such a strong personality- that it isn't simply her work that is intriguing. This lady was it seems- so 'different', 'eccentric', a 'genius', 'force of nature' and other descriptions- that she actually defied categorising, recording accurately, or understanding at the time.

So, with so much more to discover about her, her work- success and failure of essentially a life devoted to 'work in progress' on her art- it's a fascinating topic with ever-more fascinating subjects who either lived or visited the houses her and here-abouts...

Looking forwards to seeing you and Annabel in your new house in a few weeks time. I will bring you the Winnie the Pooh sticker book, and you can show me your lovely new bedroom,

Your ever-loving Grandmother,

GiGi xxx

Absurd Queen's Wisdom

Dearest Emily,

In your new house that says 'Boo' and your new bedroom that says 'BAH', your Grandmother has some simple advice for you today...

Simples!

Your ever-loving Grandmother, GiGi xxx

(image artwork copyright mrsmiddleton.com 2014)

Outside of Time

Dearest Emily,

I've been itching to make a T-shirt out of one of Julia Margaret Cameron's images for two years now, and had put the design aside for a while to get on with other stuff. Then, Uncle Joe was trawling through my iphoto for something or other- and said that there was a T-Shirt design 'that even he would wear'. Wondering how I'd made that 'grade'- I asked him which one he meant.

Turned out it was our good old 'Iago' of Angelo Collorozzi by Julia Margaret Cameron- (we've been there before on a blog-post Em.) What struck me anew this time was how the picture that got me into JMC's work- sported on the cover of Colin Fords fabulous book on Julia- was how definitive it is of her essence as a photographer. How half a dozen or so of her images are truly magnificent. And I think- rather than being 'haphazard' as she has often been described- I think that she knew exactly what she was aiming for and her own place in this new fangled 'art'. Still, I can't do Uncle Joe's T-shirt until the owner's either agree to let me- or don't. So, I've done a sketch for Joe's purposes.

Of course, we prefer the original Em, and I'm crossing my fingers that we'll be able to use it- but in the mean-time Uncle Joe will have his wish- and it'll be a prototype. Whilst drawing it- I was so reminded of how absolutely and utterly timeless were and are, some of Mrs Cameron's images- this being the easiest case in point.

I rest my case!

I hope you and Annabel are enjoying your new home- and can't wait to come and visit very soon...

Your ever-loving Grand-mother,

GiGi xxx

aMuseum...

Dearest Emily,

Your photo that Daddy posted this morning prompted this weeks blog.

The bit that prompted my thoughts- wasn't what Daddy said about you reciting from a book entitled 'How to be a Good Husband', because I agree with him there- that is a bit strange Em.

It was that lovely POV shot that Daddy took of you- where he had caught you unawares, because you were so engrossed in your thoughts, you didn't notice him. Absorbed as you were with your book on your lap, reciting and dreaming...

You strike me as a bit of a potential dreamer Emily- how quickly you pick up on something, and if you like it- turn it into a part of your world. You notice a lot of things (like the noise when we were in Pizza Express and you heard a far off fire engine- put your hands to your face in great concern- and Mummy explained you had heard one recently- and she explained that this was a different story) and how for a while you insisted that we both put on fairy wings when we spoke to each other on FaceTime. How you amuse yourself into fits of giggles pretending you are a lion, and how you think everyone you know is in a book (partly my fault that one.)

Dreamers are as Dreamers do- and don't take any advice other than Mummy's and Daddy's sage wisdoms - and GiGi's too. For it takes a Dreamer to know a Dreamer, and the only thing I shall add is- learn to manage your own nature. Don't go against it, just have something of a sanguine approach that aims to keep your 'head in the clouds, with your feet on the ground'.

After all, Emily- where would the world be without its dreamers? Well, there wouldn't be Disneyland for a start (don't know if that's good or bad.) Neither would there be ANY art, Salvador Dali, Picasso, Van Gogh as just three condemned to asylums. There'd be no Eiffel Tower, MacDonalds, or Winnie The Pooh. No Chanel, no Eddie the Eagle ( ask Daddy), no Schiaparelli, no Shakespeare (just wait, and remember to be open to it, ) no poetry, no Gaudi whatsoever... I go on too much.

Whatever your Muse, my little one- I hope the enthusiasm of youth and the wisdom of age both bear fruit in your being in learning from others and being yourself.

For GiGi, the Muse has always been Queen. Aged 13, the tremendous Lou-Lou de la Falaise entranced my intellect, my teenage aesthetic fire, my simplistic aspirations to look like someone I admired. (Before this, it was Boudicea, and before that it was Queen Nefertititi and the Ancient Egyptians.) The Muse for me was sometimes female, and sometimes male, it didn't matter- it just- and still is- what it is....

I've been very lucky in having met and been further entranced by a good many of my Muses.

But in my Muse Museum right now- here, living on the edge of the Down, while the weather keeps on blowing a hooley, and many holes in our dream-house- there are two Muses that continue to inspire all my days here. They both lived here- and both were dear friends, and quite unique Characters.

You know quite a bit by now, about the extraordinary person that was Julia Margaret Cameron. A force of nature you are familiar with by now. And she lit the torch-paper to my mind, by her dreamer's commitment to Freshwater and her life here. The torch-paper was picked up by the young Anne Thackeray, who came here after her father died, brought by Tennyson,  and  taken into the bosom of JMC's benevolence, her very being was shaped further by her experiences and reflections here- that allowed her matriarchal influence on the later Bloomsbury set.

'My point being' (as Grumpa is so find of saying,) that you never know what path you are on- other than what 'feels'  right for you. Right now- that is undiluted, save for sensible parental and day to day existence rules. Trust your instincts always, and tangents may just be logical paths.

To bring us back to your picture, and a book. Here is Anne Thackeray Ritchie's Bookplate from the late 1800's.

Isn't it lovely? By then, it seems she had dropped the Thackeray bit of her name, leaving AIR as her initials. Blowing bubbles and dreaming, it sums up our discourse about you, with a book, reciting about 'How to be a Good Husband' (Still Strange..)

Anyhow, your Grandmother is still dreaming, and is too old to change,  A Dedicated Dreamer. In my current dreams, Dimbola continues to quirk- and slowly becomes it's heritage prowess. And me- I dream that 'aMuseum' of incredible people who were all drawn here for the same reasons we are today, can be told and re-told to inspire and instruct for ever and ever!

Night, night, my little tousled haired Grand-daughter, until next time...

Your ever-loving Grand-Mother, GiGi xxxx

Shot by Julia Margaret Cameron...Henry Taylor and the Trend for Beards.

Dearest Emily,

Back at my drawing board, it's been a busy week. Two more ranges designed, and sampling under way, now I'm on to our in-house Dimbola JMC range for the Gift Shop.

So I started on mugs, and was trawling through my collection of amassed 'abilia'- and look what I found- I love this one;

Henry Taylor photographed by Julia Margaret Cameron

February 1864

It has set me a thinking Em. First of all- Mug-shots. JMC's Mugshots to be precise, and this one shall be the first. Henry Taylor, Poet and Dramatist 1800-1888. As a convicted Pogonophile (evidence Grumpa being persuaded to go ferral and grow his own scarf,) I've looked into his beard...
Henry grew this fine example in 1859, because following bronchitis, asthma and a spasmodic episode or two- he became nervous of holding a razor.
Great friends with the Camerons,  the Taylors were here at the Bay most Spring and Autumn for holidays in the late 1850's and early 1860's when Julia bought the two houses that formed Dimbola.
Henry says 'It was a house, indeed to which everybody resorted at pleasure, and in which no man, woman or child was ever known to be unwelcome.
Conventionalities had no place in it; and though Cameron was more of a philosopher than a country gentleman, the house might easily have been mistaken for that of the old English Squire, who is said to have greeted his friends with the announcement, kind though imperious- "This is Liberty Hall, and if everybody does not do as he likes here, by God I'll make him!'. *

Tennyson, another great friend of Julia of course, reputedly grew his beard in 1857, following dentistry that altered his mouth. Adopting a Wide-awake hat, it seemed a bit of a 'look' was starting.

Alfred Tennyson 'The Dirty Monk'

by Julia Margaret Cameron May 1865

So, we have a trend in beards, and wide brimmed hats, further adopted by Watts,Longfellow, Charles' Cameron and Darwin (though he preferred a hat of more Bowler brimmed proportion.) 

Watts, Darwin and Charles Hay Cameron all though Mrs Cameron's Looking Glass.

My poser for us today though Emily, goes right back to my doubts that Julia was not such a novice when she received her Camera from her daughter Julia Norman in Christmas 1863...

Here is what she famously called 'My First Success'. Anne Philpot aged 10 at Freshwater Bay, given to her Father on January 29th 1864.

So, Julia records her first success on the last day of January in 1864, and less than a month later she's up and running, and has evidenced above, photographed Henry Taylor (who by his own admission in his autobiography, was being much photographed at Freshwater in 1860-63.) No, Em, I think we read her success-story a bit wrong. I've said before that I think she was part of a group of photographers (Reijlander, Winfield, Dodgson, Southey and her Brother-in-Law Somers-Cocks) who all in turn experimented with her, taught her, and were her partners in her own photographic crime.

I think instead, that her first success- was to her- her first Artistic Success... A Woman driven to experiment with her own passion to arrest beauty. To look into the soul, to- in fact- take a 'snap-shot' ( a phrase attributed to her great friend and Mentor Sir John Hershel- prime mover in the invention of photography in 1853. )

So, her first success, was actually the beginning of achieving what became her 'style' for the next 10 years. Not the romantic experimentation with the Idylls, but her ground-breaking use of 'The Close-Up'.

I think Em, she was the first photographer to champion this, and I think that's quite important!

Good old Mrs C, she was said to impose her own spirit on all those she met. And she was quoted as having an innate sense of enjoying herself, and making others around her do the same!

Enough for now, lovely to do facetime with you this morning- even if most of it was to the back of your head! 

Your ever-loving Grandmother, GiGi xxx

*Autobiography of Henry Taylor

SOME THINGS NEVER CHANGE!- Three Forces of Nature.

Dearest Em,

With a soupcon of Venus in Retrograde, some topical discussion about how Women are discriminated about today, and some mid-Victorian cachets, let's look at Women with our 'Some Things Never Change!' eyes...

Your Grand-mother has often been a bit slow on the uptake (like GiGi the character in your little sister's book- not quite 'getting' what it was she was supposed to do!) However- I feel the need to share my ignorance and learning, as the supposed wisdom of age bids us teach our little ones.

Let's take our own Julia Margaret Cameron. There was a Woman, who though under Victorian stricture needed to be seen to be the dutiful Wife, taking second place to the Head of the family, her husband- Charles Hay Cameron. Charles became a semi-invalid during their early years of marriage, and never quite pulled off a Governing post overseas, after he was rather unceremoniously put as a bit of a fall-guy in Macaulay's Indian team. Failing Coffee and Tea plantations in Ceylon didn't help the family's financial picture either. Julia being of near Aristocratic class, needed to cut her cloth to suit this situation, and was often reliant on handouts from a benevolent Cambridge friend of Charles. However- Julia wasn't the sort of Lady to reign in her own benevolence, grand gestures of giving away shawls, food,wallpapers, re-decorating friends rooms (as in the Henry Taylors- who hadn't asked for this kindness!) adopting children, giving away her Piano to the Tennysons etc etc...

By becoming a Photographer (carefully insistent on the title 'Amateur' as it would not 'do' for a Wife to be seen to be taking over the family purse-strings) she succeeded in part in swelling the familys coffers. Added to buying the two houses that make up Dimbola- she also became a Private Guest House Land-lady, though dressed in the guise of helping out all her dear friends. She didn't get any recognition for this rather underground role- and often had to defend her 'hobby' in her copious letterwritings to the Family Benefactor, and detractors of her 'past-time' who criticised her and saw it as the exact opposite of what she was actually surrepticiously achieving. Instead of gaining quiet understanding from anyone except her beloved husband- she was railed at for her extravagance. It must have been a bit of a struggle for her. And when, she had bet on a rather lame horse- ie- she was probably under the impression that Tennyson's Idylls were raking in the cash (it wasn't the case) and her extravagant gesture of photographically illustrating them all- at her own expense- was probably a bridge too far. So when Charles yearned again for Ceylon, she threw in the towel, gathered up her husband, two coffins and a cow- and set off for Ceylon. She was probably rather tired of the fight by then, and at her house in Ceylon today, there are records of her referring to her 'beloved Isle of Wight'. She died there on January 26th 1879. This unconventional, kind and effervescent lady is a constant source of inspiration to me Emily- for all she was, and for her pioneering work...

As is her dear friend- Anne Thackeray Ritchie- she of our tales, and more and more- her lyrically pithy and humorous quotes that are underpinning our 'Freshwater Circle' collection. Anne's background alone- gave her quite a unique view-point on life. Her Father- the esteemed William Makepeace Thackeray (with a Wife in a lunatic asylum, and he being the lone parent) afforded Anne a liberal education, normally reserved only for boys. The erudite circle he mixed in, gave a precocious Anne full reign to observe, be seen and be heard, and to write and draw.
And she did all of these with aplomb. Once William Makepeace had died rather early in his fifties, Anne and her sister Minny were brought by Tennyson to Mrs Camerons, where they became firm friends. Later in her life, Anne was to become a matriarchal figure to the Bloomsbury set- and her influence is well-recorded.
Her writings though are in my opinion rather under-rated, and she is my constant source currently for quotation. Here is one, from 'Toilers and Spinsters and Other Essays 1876...

This one Em, is a design I've done today for a notebook and some cards.

I'm dedicating its' aptness to a dear neighbour of Julia's and ours who lives today. In her 90th year, she know who she is. Currently poorly- this Force of Nature bears out our 'Some Things Never Change' strap-line...
When I moved into the Lane, and was introduced to her- she reminded me in her eclectic home of my own Grandmother Elsie. Elsie beat to her own drum, and many of the features of her surrounding aesthetic were very akin to Elsie's.
Moreover for me- as I have been often criticised for 'doing too much'- this Lady ran a Society, made Jewelry, sold at Craft Fairs and Dimbola, and is a vociferous, pro-active member of the local community.
Never afraid to speak her own mind, she is indefatigable- and beautifully honestly- just 'herself'.
For myself- she gave me the benefit of by watching her- I gained added permission to be myself. She has an inspiring and awesome past. The qualities she has gained from it shine through. She doesn't sing very loudly about her own story. But she is the sort of Woman, you know has learned so much.
She knows who she is, and I send her love and admiration, and get well soon wishes.

Just sayin' Em, that some things are constant, and as true today as they have always been. I wish for you and Annabel to get to live long, happy and fulsome lives, and always keep enquiring minds, a sense of modesty, but never ever be anything else than true to yourselves.

And if that's a struggle- never mind! You'll learn from each struggle if you are open to it.

Lesson over...

Your ever-loving Grandmother, GiGi xxxx

SOME THINGS NEVER CHANGE!

Dearest Emily,

'Twas the night before your Fashion Uncle Henry Conway zooms onto our telly screens in The Jump and we're getting excited for him and wishing him lots of luck!

So, I've sat myself down to do some 'colouring-in' Em (you know what that's like.) I've been looking forwards to settling down to doing this one since I was lucky enough to scan it from the collection of a direct descendent of the Founder of Punch.

PUNCH OR THE LONDON CHARIVARI. JANUARY 13TH 1894

'A DIRTY CROSSING'

The Old Lady of Threadneedle Street (loq.)"O dear, O dear! I wish I were out of this nasty mess!"

It's a constant source of amazement to your Grandmother GiGi, how things crop up here in a timely manner. This sums up my week! Tenniel was brilliant at satirizing with character- but I don't suppose for a minute he realised how much of his work would chime in with the zeitgeist in years to come.

'Some Things Never Change' Em, as my little Shop has adopted as its 'Isle of Wight-centric' tag-line- and here this cartoon has a relevance to the current Economic status-quo just as it did when it was drawn by Sir John Tenniel a hundred and twenty years ago.

More-over, in a week where in a Looking-Glass Fashion, I have been fighting my own Jabberwock- and dealing with Slithey Toves and other Creatures, I'm drawing my own strength to keep fighting for the good and just side, by smiling when I think of my own Muse- our lovely HC. When our dear Henry, hits a contretemps or two- he is simply himself. Always, and honestly. Never afraid to galvanise or fight a good fight- he is simply his delightful him.

Which I'm sure, a lot of people are about to see as he bravely hits the ski slopes and tries to find his (non-existant) inner-Beast. We used to laugh about Grumpa's 'Black-Dog' (of the kind Churchill referred to as plagued him) and say Henry just didn't have one- with Churchill and Led Zeppelin as references. But Em, he is brave...

We are lucky to have all our good friends in life, and of the many things I adore about your 'Fashion-Uncle' is his honesty and joie de vivre. This is underpinned by a core of truth, strong values and a supportive and loving family. What more can you have to draw upon.

HC the froth on my Coffee- I am so looking forward to watching you on 'The Jump'- though I shamefully always pooh-poohed any reality TV shows you were offered. But this one rather suits you!

And of my own political fights, I shall say just one thing to you Emily. Truth, always. Know your own truth, be passionate about what and who you care about- and never be afraid of consequences coming from those. Never allow a Bully, and never walk away from what you know to be right.

Enough said, now for the entertainment- Good Luck Henry!

Your ever-loving Grandmother, GiGi, xxx