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![[Literature & Visual Arts] Dodgson, Charles Lutwidge. [Lewis Carroll] (1832-1898) Original Albumen Photograph](http://www.schubertiademusic.com/cdn/shop/files/Dodgson_Ella_photo_8281_b.jpg?v=1722187471)
[Literature & Visual Arts] Dodgson, Charles Lutwidge. [Lewis Carroll] (1832-1898). Original Albumen Photograph. Original 5.25 x 6.25 oval albumen from wet collodion negative photo on a 6.75 x 8.75 mount, a full-length image of Ella Bickersteth (Monier-Williams) at the age of 8, probably taken May-July, 1866.
Dodgson, an avid and accomplished photographer, particularly enjoyed capturing young girls on film. Carroll recorded in his diary on May 1st 1866 his first meeting with the Monier-Williams family and his wish to photograph Ella 'whom I had noticed before'. Mrs Monier-Williams brought her daughter to Carroll's rooms to be photographed on the 24th of that month, and a couple of times during 1866. The present photo is a charming image of Ella, gazing intently into the camera, holding what appears to be a cane as though she was shouldering a rifle, perhaps as part of the imaginative games which made Dodgson a favorite companion of children. She stands by the studio window on a Turkish rug.
A handwritten note on the reverse, signed by Bishop John Bickersteth, grandson of the the girl in the picture, explains the photograp's provenance. In Part: “One of the photographs taken by Lewis Carroll in 1865 of my grandother Ella Biskerseth.” After noting that most of the family’s collection of Carrolliana was sold at Phillips’ in 1994, he continues: “I write this in the presence of the only Alice Liddel alive (Mrs. Christopher Allen), great great niece of Mrs. Hargreaves, the original Alice [Liddell], who came over to see us on 22 Nov. 1994.” The “real” Alice (1852-1934), enchanted as a young girl by the stories she heard from family friend Charles Dodgson, begged the author to write them down, which he did in his classic Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and its sequel, Through the Looking Glass. The “living” Alice has a similar Dodgson photo of Ella Bickerstaff which appears on page 86 of Letters of Lewis Carroll (MacMillan & Co., 1933).
The many presentation copies from Dodgson to Ella, sold at Phillips, London attest to the lasting friendship between the two. Ella later reminisced about Carroll, writing that "as a child he gave one the sense of such perfect understanding, and this knowledge of child nature was the same whether the child was only seven years of age, or in her teens...A visit to Mr Dodgson's rooms to be photographed was always
full of surprises." (Letters, ed. Cohen, p. 195-6)
The only other known copy is at Princeton. Original photos by Dodgson are aggressively pursued by collectors of nineteenth-century fine photography, and examples with documentation demonstrating direct descent from the original sitter are extremely rare.
Literature (documenting Carroll's photographs of Ella): Wakeling: "Register of all Known [Lewis Carroll] Photographs" in Taylor/Wakeling "Lewis Carroll Photographer" (Princeton: 1949), 1461 - 1483; Illustrated in Gernsheim's "Lewis Carroll Photographer" (1949), pl. 59; Cohen's "Reflection in a Looking Glass," p. 69.
Dodgson, an avid and accomplished photographer, particularly enjoyed capturing young girls on film. Carroll recorded in his diary on May 1st 1866 his first meeting with the Monier-Williams family and his wish to photograph Ella 'whom I had noticed before'. Mrs Monier-Williams brought her daughter to Carroll's rooms to be photographed on the 24th of that month, and a couple of times during 1866. The present photo is a charming image of Ella, gazing intently into the camera, holding what appears to be a cane as though she was shouldering a rifle, perhaps as part of the imaginative games which made Dodgson a favorite companion of children. She stands by the studio window on a Turkish rug.
A handwritten note on the reverse, signed by Bishop John Bickersteth, grandson of the the girl in the picture, explains the photograp's provenance. In Part: “One of the photographs taken by Lewis Carroll in 1865 of my grandother Ella Biskerseth.” After noting that most of the family’s collection of Carrolliana was sold at Phillips’ in 1994, he continues: “I write this in the presence of the only Alice Liddel alive (Mrs. Christopher Allen), great great niece of Mrs. Hargreaves, the original Alice [Liddell], who came over to see us on 22 Nov. 1994.” The “real” Alice (1852-1934), enchanted as a young girl by the stories she heard from family friend Charles Dodgson, begged the author to write them down, which he did in his classic Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and its sequel, Through the Looking Glass. The “living” Alice has a similar Dodgson photo of Ella Bickerstaff which appears on page 86 of Letters of Lewis Carroll (MacMillan & Co., 1933).
The many presentation copies from Dodgson to Ella, sold at Phillips, London attest to the lasting friendship between the two. Ella later reminisced about Carroll, writing that "as a child he gave one the sense of such perfect understanding, and this knowledge of child nature was the same whether the child was only seven years of age, or in her teens...A visit to Mr Dodgson's rooms to be photographed was always
full of surprises." (Letters, ed. Cohen, p. 195-6)
The only other known copy is at Princeton. Original photos by Dodgson are aggressively pursued by collectors of nineteenth-century fine photography, and examples with documentation demonstrating direct descent from the original sitter are extremely rare.
Literature (documenting Carroll's photographs of Ella): Wakeling: "Register of all Known [Lewis Carroll] Photographs" in Taylor/Wakeling "Lewis Carroll Photographer" (Princeton: 1949), 1461 - 1483; Illustrated in Gernsheim's "Lewis Carroll Photographer" (1949), pl. 59; Cohen's "Reflection in a Looking Glass," p. 69.
[Literature & Visual Arts] Dodgson, Charles Lutwidge. [Lewis Carroll] (1832-1898). Original Albumen Photograph. Original 5.25 x 6.25 oval albumen from wet collodion negative photo on a 6.75 x 8.75 mount, a full-length image of Ella Bickersteth (Monier-Williams) at the age of 8, probably taken May-July, 1866.
Dodgson, an avid and accomplished photographer, particularly enjoyed capturing young girls on film. Carroll recorded in his diary on May 1st 1866 his first meeting with the Monier-Williams family and his wish to photograph Ella 'whom I had noticed before'. Mrs Monier-Williams brought her daughter to Carroll's rooms to be photographed on the 24th of that month, and a couple of times during 1866. The present photo is a charming image of Ella, gazing intently into the camera, holding what appears to be a cane as though she was shouldering a rifle, perhaps as part of the imaginative games which made Dodgson a favorite companion of children. She stands by the studio window on a Turkish rug.
A handwritten note on the reverse, signed by Bishop John Bickersteth, grandson of the the girl in the picture, explains the photograp's provenance. In Part: “One of the photographs taken by Lewis Carroll in 1865 of my grandother Ella Biskerseth.” After noting that most of the family’s collection of Carrolliana was sold at Phillips’ in 1994, he continues: “I write this in the presence of the only Alice Liddel alive (Mrs. Christopher Allen), great great niece of Mrs. Hargreaves, the original Alice [Liddell], who came over to see us on 22 Nov. 1994.” The “real” Alice (1852-1934), enchanted as a young girl by the stories she heard from family friend Charles Dodgson, begged the author to write them down, which he did in his classic Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and its sequel, Through the Looking Glass. The “living” Alice has a similar Dodgson photo of Ella Bickerstaff which appears on page 86 of Letters of Lewis Carroll (MacMillan & Co., 1933).
The many presentation copies from Dodgson to Ella, sold at Phillips, London attest to the lasting friendship between the two. Ella later reminisced about Carroll, writing that "as a child he gave one the sense of such perfect understanding, and this knowledge of child nature was the same whether the child was only seven years of age, or in her teens...A visit to Mr Dodgson's rooms to be photographed was always
full of surprises." (Letters, ed. Cohen, p. 195-6)
The only other known copy is at Princeton. Original photos by Dodgson are aggressively pursued by collectors of nineteenth-century fine photography, and examples with documentation demonstrating direct descent from the original sitter are extremely rare.
Literature (documenting Carroll's photographs of Ella): Wakeling: "Register of all Known [Lewis Carroll] Photographs" in Taylor/Wakeling "Lewis Carroll Photographer" (Princeton: 1949), 1461 - 1483; Illustrated in Gernsheim's "Lewis Carroll Photographer" (1949), pl. 59; Cohen's "Reflection in a Looking Glass," p. 69.
Dodgson, an avid and accomplished photographer, particularly enjoyed capturing young girls on film. Carroll recorded in his diary on May 1st 1866 his first meeting with the Monier-Williams family and his wish to photograph Ella 'whom I had noticed before'. Mrs Monier-Williams brought her daughter to Carroll's rooms to be photographed on the 24th of that month, and a couple of times during 1866. The present photo is a charming image of Ella, gazing intently into the camera, holding what appears to be a cane as though she was shouldering a rifle, perhaps as part of the imaginative games which made Dodgson a favorite companion of children. She stands by the studio window on a Turkish rug.
A handwritten note on the reverse, signed by Bishop John Bickersteth, grandson of the the girl in the picture, explains the photograp's provenance. In Part: “One of the photographs taken by Lewis Carroll in 1865 of my grandother Ella Biskerseth.” After noting that most of the family’s collection of Carrolliana was sold at Phillips’ in 1994, he continues: “I write this in the presence of the only Alice Liddel alive (Mrs. Christopher Allen), great great niece of Mrs. Hargreaves, the original Alice [Liddell], who came over to see us on 22 Nov. 1994.” The “real” Alice (1852-1934), enchanted as a young girl by the stories she heard from family friend Charles Dodgson, begged the author to write them down, which he did in his classic Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and its sequel, Through the Looking Glass. The “living” Alice has a similar Dodgson photo of Ella Bickerstaff which appears on page 86 of Letters of Lewis Carroll (MacMillan & Co., 1933).
The many presentation copies from Dodgson to Ella, sold at Phillips, London attest to the lasting friendship between the two. Ella later reminisced about Carroll, writing that "as a child he gave one the sense of such perfect understanding, and this knowledge of child nature was the same whether the child was only seven years of age, or in her teens...A visit to Mr Dodgson's rooms to be photographed was always
full of surprises." (Letters, ed. Cohen, p. 195-6)
The only other known copy is at Princeton. Original photos by Dodgson are aggressively pursued by collectors of nineteenth-century fine photography, and examples with documentation demonstrating direct descent from the original sitter are extremely rare.
Literature (documenting Carroll's photographs of Ella): Wakeling: "Register of all Known [Lewis Carroll] Photographs" in Taylor/Wakeling "Lewis Carroll Photographer" (Princeton: 1949), 1461 - 1483; Illustrated in Gernsheim's "Lewis Carroll Photographer" (1949), pl. 59; Cohen's "Reflection in a Looking Glass," p. 69.