Wednesday, May 10, 2023

Models and Artists (Academies and Studios) - VI

David Wilkie Wynfield
Self Portrait
ca. 1860-70
albumen print
Royal Academy of Arts, London

David Wilkie Wynfield
Portrait of Arthur Lewis
ca. 1860-70
albumen print
Royal Academy of Arts, London

David Wilkie Wynfield
Portrait of Charles Keene
ca. 1860-70
carbon print
Royal Academy of Arts, London

David Wilkie Wynfield
Portrait of Henry Tanworth Wells R.A.
ca. 1860
albumen print
Royal Academy of Arts, London

David Wilkie Wynfield
Portrait of Édouard Manet
ca. 1868
albumen print
Royal Academy of Arts, London

David Wilkie Wynfield
Portrait of Alphonse Legros
ca. 1865-70
albumen print
Royal Academy of Arts, London

David Wilkie Wynfield
Portrait of Frederick Walker A.R.A.
ca. 1860-70
albumen print
Royal Academy of Arts, London

David Wilkie Wynfield
Portrait of John Dawson Watson
ca. 1860-70
carbon print
Royal Academy of Arts, London

David Wilkie Wynfield
Portrait of Philip Harmogenes Calderon R.A.
ca. 1864
albumen print
Royal Academy of Arts, London

David Wilkie Wynfield
Portrait of Robert Pritchett
1864
carbon print
Royal Academy of Arts, London

David Wilkie Wynfield
Portrait of Thomas Faed R.A.
ca. 1860-70
albumen print
Royal Academy of Arts, London

David Wilkie Wynfield
Portrait of Thomas Oldham Barlow R.A.
ca. 1860-70
albumen print
Royal Academy of Arts, London

David Wilkie Wynfield
Portrait of Val Prinsep
ca. 1860-70
albumen print
Royal Academy of Arts, London

David Wilkie Wynfield
Unidentified Man
ca. 1860-70
albumen print
Royal Academy of Arts, London

David Wilkie Wynfield
Unidentified Man
ca. 1860-70
albumen print
Royal Academy of Arts, London

David Wilkie Wynfield
Portrait of William Yeames R.A.
ca. 1864
albumen print
Royal Academy of Arts, London

"David Wilkie Wynfield (1837-1887) was the son of an Indian Army officer and a great nephew of Sir David Wilkie R.A.  After studying at Leigh's art school in London, he exhibited paintings of historical and literary subjects from 1859.  Although he continued to paint throughout his life, Wynfield is now best known for his striking photographic portraits of fellow artists, produced during the 1860s.  Wynfield's sitters were predominantly artists and architects, many were members of the Royal Academy and included some of the most prominent artists of the day.  Many figures wore fancy dress mimicking the appearance of Old Masters and other historical figures."

"Juliet Hacking analyses these photographs in Princes of Bohemia: Photographs of David Wilkie Wynfield, a catalogue for an exhibition of the same name at the National Portrait Gallery in 2000.  She writes that there is a tragic element to the portraits as "the technical advances of the nineteenth century which increased at an accelerated rate man's knowledge of his world also stressed the insignificance of human life and endeavour in the face of the unceasing cycles of evolution and decay.  By making reference to a previous age of transition Wynfield's portrait series highlights the psychological dilemmas engendered both by the condition of the Victorian age and by the artist's own condition: the transition from youth to maturity, nonconformity to conformity, faith to reason." 

"Wynfield eschewed the conventions of mainstream Victorian photography.  His innovative portraits made use of painterly and experimental techniques including close-up views, soft focus and strong contrasts of light and shade.  . . .  Julia Margaret Cameron, who became the most acclaimed British photographer of the nineteenth century, cited Wynfield as the most dominant influence on her work, saying that to 'his beautiful photography I owed all my attempts & indeed consequently all my success."

"There are seventy-two prints of Wynfield's photographs in the Royal Academy's collection, all of which were presented to the Academy by William Yeames R.A., Wynfield's brother-in-law [and the final artist pictured above], when he retired from the post of librarian in 1911."

– from curatorial notes at the Royal Academy of Arts, London