Provenance
Christie's, New York, 29 April 1999, lot 116
Literature
Cox & Ford, Julia Margaret Cameron: The Complete Photographs, no. 253
Lukitsch, Cameron: Her Work and Career, p. 28
Powell, Julia Margaret Cameron: Victorian Photographs of Famous Men & Fair Women, pl. 20
Wolf, Julia Margaret Cameron's Women, p. 55, fig. 18
Catalogue Essay
Sappho is Cameron’s formal title for this portrait study, a reference to the elusive Greek poet of the 6th century B. C., a poet known only in fragments of writing and very little of whose work survives. She has been celebrated over the centuries for her verses in praise of love, especially love between women, although the nature of that love remains ambiguous. In mid-19th-century England, when this photograph was made, Sappho was fashionable as a symbol of the ancient Greco-Roman world and inspired both authors and painters. Cameron’s good friend, Alfred, Lord Tennyson, used her lines as a source for some of his own poems, among them “Midnight,” “Eleanora,” and “Mariana.”

The sitter in the present photograph is Cameron’s young parlor maid, Mary Hillier, described by Cameron in her autobiographical Annals of My Glass House as “one of the most beautiful and constant of my models.” Cameron photographed Hillier for over a decade in a variety of roles, among them the Madonna, the goddess Psyche, and the virgin martyr St. Agnes. In the image offered here, Hillier is probably holding a lyre, signifying poetry and music, although the prop is off-camera; in a variant study (Cox 254), made at the same time, a portion of the lyre is visible.

The glass negative for this portrait was likely broken or damaged early on, for the only prints that survive show evidence of cracks or breaks in the plate, as in the present lot. Other prints of the image in this state are in The Metropolitan Museum of Art, the George Eastman Museum in Rochester, and the Victoria and Albert Museum, London. It can be assumed that Cameron preferred prints from this negative, even with its flaws, to the more prosaic variant, of which only one print has been located.

39

Julia Margaret Cameron

Sappho (Mary Hillier)

1865
Albumen print.
13 x 10 1/8 in. (33 x 25.7 cm)
'Colnaghi' blindstamp, credited and titled 'The Pretty Housemaid' in an unidentified hand in pencil on the mount; credited in an unidentified hand in pencil on the reverse of the mount.

Estimate
$50,000 - 70,000

Sold for $40,000

Contact Specialist
Caroline Deck
Senior Specialist, Head of Sale

Vanessa Hallett
Worldwide Head of Photographs and Deputy Chairman, Americas

General Enquiries:
+1 212 940 1245

The Odyssey of Collecting: Photographs from Joy of Giving Something Foundation, Part 1

New York 3 April 2017

1
Ansel Adams
Yosemite Valley
Estimate $30,000 - 50,000
Sold for $28,750
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2
Charles Sheeler
Boulder Dam
Estimate $40,000 - 60,000
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3
Alfred Stieglitz
From ‘Room 3003’ - The Shelton, New York, Looking Northeast
Estimate $40,000 - 60,000
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4
Frederick Sommer
Colorado River Landscape
Estimate $40,000 - 60,000
Sold for $40,000
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5
Albert Renger-Patzsch
Spätherbst im Fichtenwald
Estimate $15,000 - 25,000
Sold for $27,500
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6
Willi Ruge
Berlin Fallschirmspringer from I Photograph Myself During a Parachute Jump
Estimate $20,000 - 30,000
Sold for $65,000
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7
Imogen Cunningham
Hand Weaving with Hand
Estimate $20,000 - 30,000
Sold for $30,000
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8
László Moholy-Nagy
Photogram studies for Goerz (negative and positive)
Estimate $150,000 - 250,000
Sold for $212,500
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9
Robert Heinecken
Jack Jones and the Lennon Sisters #1
Estimate $50,000 - 70,000
Sold for $37,500
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10
László Moholy-Nagy
Photogram
Estimate $150,000 - 250,000
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11
Josef Sudek
The Third Courtyard of Prague Castle
Estimate $20,000 - 30,000
Sold for $61,250
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12
Eugène Atget
Boutique Coiffeur, Boulevard de Strasbourg
Estimate $120,000 - 180,000
Sold for $125,000
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13
André Kertész
Paris (night scene)
Estimate $40,000 - 60,000
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14
William Henry Fox Talbot
Oxford High Street
Estimate $50,000 - 70,000
Sold for $56,250
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15
Alfred Stieglitz
The Terminal
Estimate $120,000 - 180,000
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16
Harry Callahan
Detroit
Estimate $40,000 - 60,000
Sold for $43,750
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17
Idris Khan
Bach. . . . Six Suites for the Solo Cello
Estimate $50,000 - 70,000
Sold for $50,000
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18
Zhang Huan
Family Tree
Estimate $150,000 - 200,000
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19
Masahisa Fukase
Kanazawa from Ravens
Estimate $15,000 - 20,000
Sold for $37,500
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20
Alfred Stieglitz
Lake George
Estimate $70,000 - 90,000
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21
Charles Marville
Sky Study, Paris
Estimate $20,000 - 30,000
Sold for $22,500
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22
Gustave Le Gray
Troncs d’Arbres, Fontainebleau
Estimate $100,000 - 150,000
Sold for $200,000
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23
Charles Aubry
Untitled (study of leaves)
Estimate $60,000 - 80,000
Sold for $137,500
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24
Henri-Victor Regnault
Sèvres et ses environs, Manufacture, Porte orientale et cours d'Honneur
Estimate $100,000 - 150,000
Sold for $125,000
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25
Edward Steichen
The Spiral Shell
Estimate $80,000 - 120,000
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26
Edward Weston
White Sands, New Mexico
Estimate $50,000 - 70,000
Sold for $68,750
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27
Imogen Cunningham
Magnolia Blossom
Estimate $180,000 - 220,000
Sold for $162,500
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28
Laura Gilpin
Sand Dunes
Estimate $20,000 - 30,000
Sold for $25,000
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29
Gustave Le Gray
Cavalry Maneuvres, Camp de Châlons
Estimate $70,000 - 90,000
Sold for $106,250
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30
Carleton Watkins
Cape Horn, Columbia River
Estimate $70,000 - 90,000
Sold for $156,250
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31
Charles Nègre
Arles, Porte des Châtaignes
Estimate $70,000 - 90,000
Sold for $62,500
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32
Félix Teynard
Karnak (Thèbes), Palais - Salle Hypostyle - Vue Transversale Prise du Point K
Estimate $30,000 - 50,000
Sold for $105,000
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33
Margaret Bourke-White
Rosenbaum Grain Elevators, Chicago, IL. (Our "temple view")
Estimate $30,000 - 50,000
Sold for $27,500
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34
Bernd and Hilla Becher
Grain Elevators
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35
Henri Cartier-Bresson
At the Curragh Racecourse Near Dublin
Estimate $25,000 - 35,000
Sold for $32,500
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36
Josef Koudelka
Romania
Estimate $20,000 - 30,000
Sold for $30,000
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37
Bill Brandt
Francis Bacon, Primrose Hill
Estimate $10,000 - 15,000
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38
Charles Nègre
Self-Portrait in Orientalist Costume
Estimate $50,000 - 70,000
Sold for $37,500
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39
Julia Margaret Cameron
Sappho (Mary Hillier)
Estimate $50,000 - 70,000
Sold for $40,000
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40
Edward Steichen
Chéruit Gown (Marion Morehouse) (Mrs. E.E. Cummings)
Estimate $50,000 - 70,000
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41
Peter Hujar
Chloe Finch
Estimate $15,000 - 25,000
Sold for $21,250
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42
Robert Frank
New York City Candy Store, 86th Street
Estimate $30,000 - 50,000
Sold for $75,000
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43
Roy DeCarava
Catsup Bottles, Table and Coat, New York
Estimate $7,000 - 9,000
Sold for $20,000
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The Odyssey of Collecting: Photographs from Joy...

New York 3 April 2017

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Provenance

Literature

Catalogue Essay

39

Julia Margaret Cameron

Sappho (Mary Hillier)

The Odyssey of Collecting: Photographs from Joy of Giving Something Foundation, Part 1

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