Editing Julia Margaret Cameron (section)

=== Allegories and illustrations ===
Cameron may have found these illustrative group portraits more challenging than her other images. With more people in the image, the chances were greater that someone would move during the long exposures, so more light was needed to shorten the exposure time and arrest the motion. More sitters also meant a greater [[depth of field]] was necessary to put everyone in focus, further complicating the compositions.<ref name="The Complete Photographs" />{{Rp|433}}

Cameron's narrative portraits of women were influenced by tableaux vivants and amateur theatre. The women in her images are typically depicted in the idealised Victorian roles of mother and wife.<ref name="Grove Art Online" />

==== Religion ====
Cameron made over 50 images representing the [[Madonna (art)|Madonna]], often played by her household servant Mary Hillier. These images present "an ideal of femininity that combines wholesomeness with qualities of sensuality and vulnerability". She represented the Virgin Mary in various scenes from the Bible, such as the [[Annunciation]] and the Salutation,<ref name="The Complete Photographs" />{{Rp|130}} but also illustrated more obscure figures.<ref name="The Complete Photographs" />{{Rp|129}}<gallery mode="packed" heights="300">
File:Henry Taylor, Study of King David, by Julia Margaret Cameron, 1865.jpg|Sir [[Henry Taylor (dramatist)|Henry Taylor]] as [[David|King David]], 1866
File:Mary Mother, by Julia Margaret Cameron.jpg|''Mary Mother''
File:The Angel at the Tomb, by Julia Margaret Cameron.jpg|''The Angel at the Tomb''
</gallery>

==== Literature ====

Cameron took literature as inspiration, representing characters from Shakespeare, [[Elizabethan literature|Elizabethan poems]], novels, plays, and the work of her contemporaries: Tennyson, Henry Taylor, [[Christina Rossetti]], [[Robert Browning]], and [[George Eliot]].<ref name="The Complete Photographs" />{{Rp|434}}<gallery mode="packed" heights="300">
File:Julia Margaret Cameron (British, born India - Maud "There has Fallen a splendid Tear From the Passion Flower at the Gate" - Google Art Project.jpg|''Maud "There has Fallen a splendid Tear From the Passion Flower at the Gate"'', 1875
File:Julia Margaret Cameron - "They call me cruel hearted, I care not ... - Google Art Project.jpg|''"He thought of that sharp look Mother I gave him yesterday"/"They call me cruel hearted, I care not what they say"'', 1875
File:Julia Margaret Cameron (British, born India - Queen Esther before King Ahasuerus - Google Art Project.jpg|''Queen Esther before King Ahasuerus'', 1865
File:Julia Margaret Cameron - "The blessed Music went that way my soul w... - Google Art Project.jpg|''"So now I think my time is near – I trust it is – I know"/"The blessed Music went that way my soul will have to go"'', 1875
</gallery>

==== ''Idylls of the King'' ====
In 1874, Tennyson asked Cameron to create illustrations for a new edition of his ''Idylls of the King'', a popular series of poems about [[King Arthur|Arthurian]] legends.<ref name="The Complete Photographs" />{{Rp|434}} Cameron worked on this commission for three months. However, she was unhappy with the final publication, and complained that the small size of her images depleted their significance. This prompted Cameron to issue a deluxe version of the ''Idylls of the King'' which featured twelve photographs as full-size prints.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Rosen|first=Jeff|title=Julia Margaret Cameron's 'fancy subjects': photographic allegories of Victorian identity and empire|publisher=Manchester University Press|year=2016|isbn=978-1-78499-746-5|location=Manchester|pages=233–234}}</ref> This series of images, influenced by Watts,<ref name="Britannica Academic" /> was her last large-scale project<ref name="National Gallery of Art" /> and is considered the peak of her illustrative work.<ref name="Encyclopedia of Nineteenth-Century Photography" /><ref name="Oxford Companion to the Photograph" /> <gallery mode="packed" heights="300">
File:Julia Margaret Cameron (British, born India - Parting of Sir Lancelot and Queen Guinevere - Google Art Project.jpg|''Parting of Sir Lancelot and Queen Guinevere'', 1874
File:Julia Margaret Cameron (British, born India - King Arthur - Google Art Project.jpg|King Arthur, 1874
</gallery>