Lot Essay
Comprising six studies of children and sixteen Pre-Raphaelite studies, allegorical and narrative sunjects and tableaux including one of Romeo and Juliet (illus.) and two of Ophelia. The child portraits which use selective focus relate stylistically to photographs by Julia Margaret Cameron, however recent research conducted by Pam Roberts, Curator of the Royal Photographic Society has shown these to be the work of the Scottish photographer Ronald Leslie Melville, 11th Earl of Leven.
A member of the Amateur Photographic Association, Melville was educated at Eton and Christ Church, Oxford before taking up a career in banking. He practiced photography in private and appears to have done his most interesting work during the 1860s. In 1871 he exhibited at the International Exhibition where his work was compared favourably to that of Cameron.
For a similar album which included at least four of the same images see Sothebys London, 9 May 1991, Lot 170 where several of the sitters in the child portraits were identified on mounts as Nelly Talbot and Mary and George Wyndham.
A member of the Amateur Photographic Association, Melville was educated at Eton and Christ Church, Oxford before taking up a career in banking. He practiced photography in private and appears to have done his most interesting work during the 1860s. In 1871 he exhibited at the International Exhibition where his work was compared favourably to that of Cameron.
For a similar album which included at least four of the same images see Sothebys London, 9 May 1991, Lot 170 where several of the sitters in the child portraits were identified on mounts as Nelly Talbot and Mary and George Wyndham.