Isabella Grace

Our user Erik, as he misses photography in DailyArt, sent us this text. I hope you will like it (also showing old photography in DailyArt) - enjoy :)

Please meet Clementina Elphinstone Fleeming. (often misspelled Fleming). She was born June 1, 1822 to Admiral Charles Elphinstone Fleeming and Catalina Paulina Alessandro. Clemy, as she was called, had much difficulty because she was a very smart woman; and smart women were thought to be difficult. She married Cornwallis Maude, 4th viscount Hawarden in 1845, thus becoming Lady Clementina Maud, viscountess Hawarden. The couple were not very rich until they inherited the Hawarden estates in Ireland and Scotland. Around 1857 Clementina learned about photography, and in 1859 set up her own studio at South Kensington, London. There she produced over 800 photographs until she died in 1865. All this time she was a very well-to-do Victorian lady, wearing full dresses with crinoline and laces, etc. Then over that she wore a photographers coat. Imagine that...

Nearly all of her pictures feature her children. Because she was a woman, Clemy wasn't easily allowed to go out of the home. So she used one room, with the same props, over and over again; employing the light and the mirror repeatedly. None of her negatives survive, but in 1939 her granddaughter Clementina Tottenham gave 775 prints to the Victoria and Albert Museum. All these paper prints are ripped, perhaps because the albums took too much space when moving. There are no known photos with Clemy in them. She was a photographer, not a subject. (To me, it was special to note an echo in modern times with the photography of Francesca Woodman, who also used indoor rooms and strange poses with mirrors and wallpapers, using herself as subject. Sadly, she took her own life in 1981.)

The photo attached is of Isabella Grace, one of Clemy's daughters. In the front room, first floor at Kensington Gardens. With the mirror. We often see this kind of double image. The principle shot is of her back. The crinoline has been removed from her dress, making it even more like a heavy drape. Her bonnet is on a stand to the left; she shows her long hair, propping it up a bit with her right hand. The reflection in the mirror provides the other image. Her face and left arm are seen. The light strikes her face from the right, showing her face almost in profile and making a contrast with the bulk formed by the dress. Her body is framed twice. On the right side we see a drape (a curtain), repeated directly to her left. And the body is again framed by the mirror, thus providing us with two views in one.

Due to Clemy being within the top 10 percent elite of her country, I would never have been able to meet her, but what fascinating conversations we could have had, perhaps! (Dream on Erik...)