"My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?"
Photograph
Frederick H. Evans
British, 1853–1943
"My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?"
The Seven Last Words, Self-Photographs from Life
1898
Platinum print, printed 1912 by Frederick H. Evans from copy negative
Image: 20.2 x 15.3 cm
Mount: 35.1 x 26.8 cm [irreg.]
Purchase
1973.0027.0004
Inscriptions mount recto (pencil): 4
(ink): "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?
verso (signed in pencil): F.H.E
[block letters in ink on title page of paper portfolio which originally housed all seven prints in this series (1973:0027:1-7)]:
The Seven Last Words
A Series of Photographic Studies by and from F. Holland Day
Boston U.S.A.
Printed in Platinotype by [signed] Frederick H. Evans
[typewritten sheet attached to interior page of paper portfolio which originally housed all seven prints in this series (1973:0027:1-7)]:
"These studies in expression were made in 189- by my friend F. Holland Day in Boston, U.S.A, from his own hand and face. He wanted to make photography do what has been so frequently done by painters, with as full a sense of reverence but a greater human intimacy.
He had a mirror attached to the camera so that he could see his expression at the time of the exposure; he made the exposure himself, so that the whole effort was a purely personal one. He retired to his country seat for full leisure and privacy, allowed his hair and beard to grow for months till it was what he desired, and he made hundreds of negatives before he got these to fully satisfy his exquisite and artistic taste.
The original negatives, from which only a few (three or four) sets of prints were taken, were destroyed by a fire in his studio.
Two sets only of these seven pictures from the original negatives are in England, one belonged to the late poet, Miss Louise Imogen Guiney, and the other he gave to me. The vignetting was done by glycerining the platinotype prints before developing.
Years later he asked me to make new negatives from my set of prints. The impressions in this portfolio are from these new negatives, which are about half as large again as the originals.
These prints are finer in quality and tone than the original set, and that there has been no loss of any kind in the reproduction was Mr. Day's own verdict when I sent him a set of the new prints, he indeed thought them finer in every way than the old originals.
It was a unique effort, inspired by the upmost reverence and carried out with extraordinary success."
[signed in ink] Frederick H. Evans 1912
(ink): "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?
verso (signed in pencil): F.H.E
[block letters in ink on title page of paper portfolio which originally housed all seven prints in this series (1973:0027:1-7)]:
The Seven Last Words
A Series of Photographic Studies by and from F. Holland Day
Boston U.S.A.
Printed in Platinotype by [signed] Frederick H. Evans
[typewritten sheet attached to interior page of paper portfolio which originally housed all seven prints in this series (1973:0027:1-7)]:
"These studies in expression were made in 189- by my friend F. Holland Day in Boston, U.S.A, from his own hand and face. He wanted to make photography do what has been so frequently done by painters, with as full a sense of reverence but a greater human intimacy.
He had a mirror attached to the camera so that he could see his expression at the time of the exposure; he made the exposure himself, so that the whole effort was a purely personal one. He retired to his country seat for full leisure and privacy, allowed his hair and beard to grow for months till it was what he desired, and he made hundreds of negatives before he got these to fully satisfy his exquisite and artistic taste.
The original negatives, from which only a few (three or four) sets of prints were taken, were destroyed by a fire in his studio.
Two sets only of these seven pictures from the original negatives are in England, one belonged to the late poet, Miss Louise Imogen Guiney, and the other he gave to me. The vignetting was done by glycerining the platinotype prints before developing.
Years later he asked me to make new negatives from my set of prints. The impressions in this portfolio are from these new negatives, which are about half as large again as the originals.
These prints are finer in quality and tone than the original set, and that there has been no loss of any kind in the reproduction was Mr. Day's own verdict when I sent him a set of the new prints, he indeed thought them finer in every way than the old originals.
It was a unique effort, inspired by the upmost reverence and carried out with extraordinary success."
[signed in ink] Frederick H. Evans 1912