Wist ye not that your father and I sought thee sorrowing?
Photograph
Wist ye not that your father and I sought thee sorrowing?
ca. 1865
Albumen silver print
Image: 25.2 x 28.7 cm (9 15/16 x 11 5/16 in.)
Mount: 28.5 x 38 cm (11 1/4 x 14 15/16 in.)
Gift of Eastman Kodak Company
1981.1121.0027
Inscriptions mat recto-(signature and handwritten notations in ink by artist)
title, "Registered Photograph Julia Margaret Cameron"
mat verso-(blue stamp) "374"
title, "Registered Photograph Julia Margaret Cameron"
mat verso-(blue stamp) "374"
TextA member of upper class Victorian society, Julia Margaret Cameron did not take up photography until the age of forty-eight. During the eleven years Cameron experimented with photography, she worked close to home on the Isle of Wight. Many of the characters in her constructed, allegorical photographs were those closest to her—family members, servants, neighbors, and friends. Like much of Cameron’s work, “Wist Ye Not That Your Father And I Sought Thee Sorrowing?” derives its title and themes from literature, in this case a scene in the New Testament in which Mary frantically searches for and eventually finds a young Jesus, who had wandered off to preach to a group of elders.
Lisa Hostetler, Ph.D.
Curator in Charge, Department of Photography
Label for A History of Photography [Rotation 1]
May 9–September 28, 2014
Lisa Hostetler, Ph.D.
Curator in Charge, Department of Photography
Label for A History of Photography [Rotation 1]
May 9–September 28, 2014
