Photographic Study (Girl with skipping rope on the balcony at 5 Prince's Garden, South Kensington)

Lady Hawarden began to photograph in 1857 when she and her husband, Cornwallis Maude and their family moved from London to Dundrum, the family estate in County Tipperary, Ireland. With her eight daughters as models, she produced intimate studies of Victorian womanhood, focusing on the simple formal qualities of light, shadow and compositional detail. Later in 1859, the family returned to London, where they resided at 5 Princes Garden, South Kensington. Her work was included in exhibitions at the Photographic Society of London in 1863 and 1864, where she won two silver medals for her contributions. The majority of her works were held by the family until 1939 when nearly eight hundred were given to the collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum. (Hambourg et al., The Waking Dream, p. 276; Lawson, Women in White: Photographs by Lady Hawarden.)

Another example of Hawarden's work is in the collection of The Gilman Paper Company.