Details
DODGSON, Rev. CHARLES LUTWIDGE. An original photograph by Dodgson, apparently of the young boy Brook Kitchin, [Oxford] 1876, albumen print, 150 x 104mm. (6 x 4 1/2in.), mounted on stiff card, 165 x 106mm. (6 1/2 x 4 1/4in.) over-all, a tiny marginal abrasion. Inscribed by Dodgson on verso in his customary purple ink to the boy's mother: "Mrs. [George William] Kitchin from the Artist, July/76"; with the photograph number "2426" in purple ink in an upper verso corner, and with the pencilled name "Brook Kitchin" in an unidentified hand on verso nearly erased. In fine condition.
The father George William Kitchin (1827-1912), biographer and historian, Student of Christ Church, Oxford, later Dean of Winchester and Durham, was a colleague and a close friend of Dodgson's. His daughter Alexander ("Xie") became one of Dodgson's very special child friends and was one of his favorite photographic subjects. He also took photographs of her three brothers, by themselves and in a group with her. In this photograph her brother Brook Taylor Kitchin (1869-1940) is posed sitting in a chair, three-quarter length, head facing camera.
"Largely self-taught but exemplifying a great deal of professional discipline and careful planning, Dodgson applied himself to the art [photography] with the same degree of intensity and thoroughness he brought to his writing and his teaching. For over twenty-four years -- from May 1856 to July 1880 -- photography played a major part in his personal and social life and provided him with an outlet for his visual creativity, which surpassed in volume his modest work with pen on paper" -- Robert N. Taylor, compiler, Lewis Carroll at Texas (Austin: HRC, 1985), p. 185.
The father George William Kitchin (1827-1912), biographer and historian, Student of Christ Church, Oxford, later Dean of Winchester and Durham, was a colleague and a close friend of Dodgson's. His daughter Alexander ("Xie") became one of Dodgson's very special child friends and was one of his favorite photographic subjects. He also took photographs of her three brothers, by themselves and in a group with her. In this photograph her brother Brook Taylor Kitchin (1869-1940) is posed sitting in a chair, three-quarter length, head facing camera.
"Largely self-taught but exemplifying a great deal of professional discipline and careful planning, Dodgson applied himself to the art [photography] with the same degree of intensity and thoroughness he brought to his writing and his teaching. For over twenty-four years -- from May 1856 to July 1880 -- photography played a major part in his personal and social life and provided him with an outlet for his visual creativity, which surpassed in volume his modest work with pen on paper" -- Robert N. Taylor, compiler, Lewis Carroll at Texas (Austin: HRC, 1985), p. 185.