Lot Essay
Alexandra 'Xie' Rhoda Kitchin (1864-1925) a favourite photographic subject of Charles Lutwidge Dodgson (Lewis Carroll), who photographed her around fifty times, from age four until just before her sixteenth birthday.
She was the daughter of Rev. George William Kitchin, Dodgson's colleague at Christ Church, Oxford, and later became Dean of Winchester and Dean of Durham. Xie had three younger brothers: George Herbert, Hugh Bridges, and Brook Taylor, and a younger sister, Dorothy Maud Mary, all of whom were photographed by Dodgson.
This study was one of three of 'Xie' made by Dodgson/Carroll in his Christ Church studio on 12 June 1869. He wrote in his diary: 'Mrs. Kitchin brought over Xie, of whom I did three photos.' These became his image numbers 1677-1679. The present study is most likely 1678, being from the same camera position as 1677 and there existing the third, unnumbered study evidently from a changed camera position.
We are grateful to Dodgson/Carroll scholar Edward Wakeling for his help in cataloguing this print.
She was the daughter of Rev. George William Kitchin, Dodgson's colleague at Christ Church, Oxford, and later became Dean of Winchester and Dean of Durham. Xie had three younger brothers: George Herbert, Hugh Bridges, and Brook Taylor, and a younger sister, Dorothy Maud Mary, all of whom were photographed by Dodgson.
This study was one of three of 'Xie' made by Dodgson/Carroll in his Christ Church studio on 12 June 1869. He wrote in his diary: 'Mrs. Kitchin brought over Xie, of whom I did three photos.' These became his image numbers 1677-1679. The present study is most likely 1678, being from the same camera position as 1677 and there existing the third, unnumbered study evidently from a changed camera position.
We are grateful to Dodgson/Carroll scholar Edward Wakeling for his help in cataloguing this print.