[TENNYSON, Alfred (1809-1892), subject]. -- CAMERON, Julia Margaret (1815-1879), photographer. Albumen photograph portrait of Tennyson, SIGNED BY BOTH, 3 June 1869.

12 x 9 1/2 in. albumen photograph on 13 3/4 x 10 1/2 in. cardstock mount, verso browned with old tape residue at edges; matted. INSCRIBED BY CAMERON: "From Life. Registered Copy. Copy Right Julia Margaret Cameron June 3d. 1869. The last photograph of the Laureate," inked on mount beneath the photo. ADDITIONALLY SIGNED BY TENNYSON ("A. Tennyson") in lower margin. Provenance: Tennyson Family; their sale Sotheby's Belgravia, 1980, lot 76; William Reese; Roy Davids; his sale Bonhams, 8 May 2013, lot 473.

THE TENNYSON FAMILY’S COPY OF CAMERON’S FAMOUS PHOTOGRAPH OF LORD ALFRED TENNYSON, THE POET LAUREATE OF ENGLAND. One of Tennyson’s favorite images of himself, Cameron thought the image “a fit representation of Isaiah or of Jeremiah,” but Tennyson himself called the image “The Dirty Monk,” the moniker by which it is now widely known. The noted photographer P.H. Emerson said the picture reminded him of a Velasquez painting, and he considered the photograph to be a "masterly work, with all the breadth of effect and vigorous simplicity that belongs to great art”; while the dramatist Henry Taylor said the picture was “as fine as Alfred Tennyson's finest poem." When this photograph was sold in 1980 by order of the Tennyson Trustees, Sotheby’s Belgravia erroneously described Tennyson’s signature on the mount as a facsimile; but the present exemplar is actually ONE OF THE VERY RARE AUTOGRAPHED LARGE FORMAT COPIES. Cox and Ford 810.