Examining the Achievements and Advantages of Jane Austen and Julia Margaret Cameron
Julia Margaret Cameron and Jane Austen are both luminaries of the 19th century who explored the inner lives of women in their respective fields, photography and fiction. The legacies of these two trailblazing British women converge with the Morgan Library & Museum’s concurrent exhibitions A Lively Mind: Jane Austen at 250 and Arresting Beauty: Julia Margaret Cameron. Both draw on the women’s visual and literary archives to illustrate the complexities and historic significance of their lives.
Writing in the late 18th and early 19th century, amid the rise of the British middle class and the constraints of rigid gender roles, Austen captured the desires and anxieties of women with needle-sharp precision. In her prose, the interiority of her characters is composed of suppressed longing, quiet rebellion, and moral reflection. A Lively Mind immerses visitors in Austen’s world through manuscripts, portraits, and period interiors that together evoke the atmosphere of her life and work.
Upon entering the exhibition, a small table with a wooden chair displays a quill and handwritten letters, set against a backdrop of leafy green wallpaper. This tableau recreates Austen’s writing desk from the dining room of her home in Chawton, England, now preserved as a museum. A photograph of the historic house hangs above, anchoring the display in its real-world setting.
The modest recreation of Austen’s writing desk contrasts with the wooden bookshelf nearby, which moves from the intimate to the global, displaying Pride and Prejudice translations in several different languages. Austen’s imprint is evident across various artistic forms, countries, and generations. A glass case displays rare books from the 19th century, all biographical accounts of the author, by writers such as Edward Knatchbull-Hugessen and Oscar Fay Adams; on the wall behind it are portraits of her, including a miniature watercolor on ivory by an unidentified artist and a steel engraving by William Home Lizars.
Generations later, the fascination with Austen persists — when I visited, the excitement was palpable around two standout objects on display: a recreation of Austen’s lustrous silk jacket and her famed ring. The gold and turquoise ring — on view in the United States for the first time — sparked debate over what artifacts are too historically significant to leave England after singer Kelly Clarkson temporarily acquired it at auction in 2012.
Another major highlight is Amy Sherald’s painting of a young Black man wearing a sweater featuring architectural designs, “A Single Man in Possession of a Good Fortune” (2019). The title is inspired by the famous opening line of Pride and Prejudice, which references the entanglement of wealth, gender, and marriage: “It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.” That such a line might resonate with young Black men in 21st-century America speaks to the endurance and reach of Austen’s writing. A Lively Mind offers a visually striking and archivally rich exploration of Austen’s life and legacy. By combining recreated interior design elements with books, portraits, and even contemporary art, the exhibition effectively conveys her lasting relevance across historical and cultural contexts.
Across the hallway, Arresting Beauty examines the life and work of Victorian photographer Julia Margaret Cameron. Though not as widely known as Austen, Cameron is deeply significant to the history of photography; her soft-focus, allegorical portraits exemplify her titular desire to “arrest all beauty that came before [her].”
Cameron’s dreamy photographic gaze is immediately apparent in the six works created between 1865 and 1872 that open the show, each portraying a different sitter. A tender close-up portrait of “Florence Fisher” (1872) depicts the daughter of a friend who sometimes posed for Cameron. “The Astronomer” (1867), a shadowy portrait of an anonymous sitter with an intellectual appearance, is perhaps inspired by Cameron’s scientist friend, Sir John Herschel; it reflects the Victorian-era fascination with science and philosophy. A spiritual portrait, “The Annunciation” (1865–66), portrays models acting out the story of archangel Gabriel’s declaration to the Virgin Mary, while the floral motifs in “The Red and White Roses” (1865) and “Daisies Pied” (1870–74) symbolize Victorian ideas of femininity and purity in pastoral scenes.
Cameron’s life was punctuated with periods of deep sadness and loneliness, and her photographs often evoke similar feelings. The models express quiet moments of solitude and reflection. Her oeuvre is replete with themes related to Christianity, well-known literature (especially for a Victorian audience), and young women. In one particularly moving photograph, “Sappho” (1865), Cameron’s maid, Mary Hillier, poses as the ancient Greek poet from Lesbos. Despite the Victorian sensibilities regarding women’s domestic and subservient roles, Cameron imbued her photographic subjects with agency and depth; women and girls