Lot 75: WILLIAM JAMES STILLMAN (1828-1901)

Athens 25 of 26 albumen prints. Circa 1869. Each approximately 71/2 x 91/2in. (19.1 x 24.2cm.) or the reverse. 2 with arched tops. 7 credited and/or initialed, dated, 2 titled and each sequentially numbered in the negative or in pencil on the recto; each with letterpress title label affixed to the mount; University College, London collection stamp (cancelled) on the reverse of the mount. Lacking plate 17. Black leather folding case with ties, rebacked in black cloth with credit and title in gilt on top flap, gilt. Overall size: 18 3/8 x 141/2in. (46.7 x 35.9cm.) (25) LITERATURE See: Pare, Photography and Architecture, pl. 65, 66; Xanthakis, History of Greek Photography 1839-1960, pp. 88-90. NOTES The American diplomat and journalist, William James Stillman, served as American Consul in Crete, where he photographed from 1865-67. In 1868, he moved to Athens with his family, only to enter a tragic, but artistically rich phase in his life, during which his son died, his wife committed suicide and he made this fine series of photographs of the ruins of Athens. Stillman had travelled extensively and established relationships within intellectual and artistic circles in America and Europe, particularly with the Pre-Raphaelites in London. He met Maria Spartali, the daughter of the Greek Consul in London, more known today as one of the favourite models of Dante Gabriel Rossetti and Julia Margaret Cameron, and married her in 1871. Like many other early photographers Stillman appears to have executed one important series of images and then moved on to other interests. 25 photographs from his Athens series were published as carbon prints in London as The Acropolis of Athens Illustrated Picturesquely and Architecturally in Photography (London: F. S. Ellis, 1870). It is rare to find examples of either the carbon print series or this portfolio of albumen prints today. His only other known photographic publication was Poetic Localities of Cambridge, published in Boston in 1876. A list of titles is available upon request.