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Artist/Maker
Dorothy Wilding
(British, 1893 - 1976)
Datec. 1930s
MediumChlorobromide print on tissue and card mount
DimensionsImage: 7 5/8 × 7 7/16 in. (19.4 × 18.9 cm)
Sheet: 9 5/8 × 8 3/8 in. (24.5 × 21.3 cm)
Credit LineGift of William E. Williams, Class of 1973
Object number2012.4.5
Not on view
DescriptionThis bromide print on tissue features a woman resting her chin on her left hand, framed by large flowers to one side. The photographer, Dorothy Wilding, was an exceptionally successful British portraitist. After an apprenticeship with the Bond Street photographer Marian Neilson, Wilding opened her own photography studio in London in 1914. She was the first woman to be appointed as an Official Royal Photographer, for the 1937 coronation of George VI and his wife Elizabeth. Wilding photographed many aristocratic and cultural figures of the day, including Queen Elizabeth II, Princess Margaret, Somerset Maugham, Yehudi Menuhin, Harry Belafonte, and Noël Coward. A 1935 portrait of Wallis Simpson, Duchess of Windsor, features a very similar composition to the Wellin's portrait of an unidentified woman. In both images, the sitter rests her arms on a ledge that can just be seen at the bottom edge of the frame, and is accompanied by a vertically-oriented spray of flowers. Wilding often used high key lighting and placed her subjects against clean white backgrounds, as seen in these portraits. The photographer published her autobiography, 'In Pursuit of Perfection,' in 1958, and her surviving archives, which include over two thousand prints, are held at the National Portrait Gallery in London.
Collections
Additional Details
Exhibition History
2022-2023
Clinton, NY (Ruth and Elmer Wellin Museum of Art, Hamilton College). "Dialogues Across Disciplines: Building a Teaching Collection at the Wellin Museum of Art," September 17, 2022 - May 20, 2023
Clinton, NY (Ruth and Elmer Wellin Museum of Art, Hamilton College). "Dialogues Across Disciplines: Building a Teaching Collection at the Wellin Museum of Art," September 17, 2022 - May 20, 2023
Provenance
2012: Hamilton College (Ruth and Elmer Wellin Museum of Art), by gift of William E. Williams.
Markings
Label: adhesive label with "No 06063 [number is in pencil] / D [in pencil] / DOROTHY / WILDING / CAMERA PORTRAITS / TWENTY-TWO-OLD BOND / STREET . LONDON . WI / TELEPHONE 4924 REGENT" typeset, on verso of mount at center.
Signature
Signed "Dorothy Wilding" at lower left in pencil.
Inscribed
No inscriptions noted.
Date: early 19th century
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Firelei Báez
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Marla Sweeney
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Anna Fox
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Lorna Simpson
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D.W. Kellogg & Company
Date: c. 1830-1840
Medium: Hand-colored lithograph on paper
Object number: 1959.142
Sharon Lockhart
Date: 2008
Medium: Three chromogenic prints
Object number: 2014.1.a-c
Date: probably between 1751 and 1772
Medium: Engraving
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Silvia Saunders
Date: c. 1931-1937
Medium: Gelatin silver print
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Date: 20th century
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