28 000 €

Réf : 85988

Order

Book

A question about this book?

Add to my virtual collection

[Photographie] Lewis CARROLL

Photographie originale - Xie Kitchin

S.n., [Oxford] [août 1869], 14,9x20,8cm, une feuille sous marie-louise.

| technique becomes art: Lewis Carroll's famous collodion child portraits  |
 

Original photograph of Xie Kitchin
[Oxford August 1869] 14,9 x 20,8 cm one photograph under mount


Original photograph by Lewis Carroll (Charles Ludwidge Dodgson), rectan­gular albumen print. The tondo portrait of the little girl gives way to a partic­ularly visible collodion emulsion, also bearing the number added by Carroll in the negative at top left. Discreet resto­ration at the ends of the plate, a diago­nal fold in the upper left corner.
Extraordinary and probably unre­corded photograph of Lewis Carroll's favorite sitter Xie Kitchin, one of the first portraits of his young muse, then aged 5. One of the few retaining as much of the collodion emulsion peel­ing away from the edges of the glass negative – a deliberate artistic choice by Carroll.
The use of the collodion process, dubbed “black art” is in fact insepa­rable from Carroll's creative process. He discovered photography through this new technique and described it as “completely scientific and wonderfully mysterious,” requiring long exposures and tedious handling which appealed to his inventor side. In addition to be­ing a practitioner, he also wrote a book on the subject, titled Photography Ex­traordinary. Twenty-three years later as he wrote in his memoirs, Carroll aban­doned photography when collodion disappeared in favor of dry plate. This extremely rare print bears witness to this complex technique, revealing the portrait of little Xie surrounded by a dark, tormented halo induced by the chemical collodion reaction.
Carroll immortalises one of his most fa­mous little girls, who along with Alice Liddell has become the very symbol of his photographic work. The striking portrait embodies Victorian ideals of childhood, reflecting Carroll's belief in the child's innocence rooted in their perceived temporal proximity to God, shielding them from sin and the cor­rupting influences of society. Alexan­dria “Xie” Kitchin, daughter of one of the writer-photographer's colleagues at Christ Church, appeared in no few­er than fifty of his photographs. This portrait dates from their earliest ses­sions, likely taken in August 1869 at his Badcock's Yard studio at the same as the portrait shown in Taylor & Wakel­ing (2002, L:3, p. 229). In the latter, Xie wears the same dress with openwork lace as this photograph.
A marvelous example of Lewis Car­roll's ceaseless pursuit of beauty and a testament to his mastery of the pho­tographic arts.
Provenance: Sotheby's London, 08/05/1992, lot no. 186. Not in Taylor and Wakeling (2002). Another print in smaller format was sold in 2023 without the number added by Dodgson in the negative.