Charles Clifford (

Wales Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the Bristol Channel to the south. It had a population in ...

, c. 1820 —

Madrid Madrid ( , ) is the capital and most populous city of Spain. The city has almost 3.4 million inhabitants and a Madrid metropolitan area, metropolitan area population of approximately 6.7 million. It is the Largest cities of the Europ ...

, 1 January 1863) was a Welsh photographer based mainly in Spain. Clifford, known mostly for his daguerreotype, calotype and

wet plate collodion The collodion process is an early photographic process. The collodion process, mostly synonymous with the "collodion wet plate process", requires the photographic material to be coated, sensitized, exposed, and developed within the span of about ...

images of scenes from around Spain, he was, together with the French photographer, Jean Laurent, one of the leading photographers of his day in Spain. Queen Victoria and Prince Albert are known to have purchased some of Clifford's Spanish photographs in 1854, and in 1861, he published two volumes, containing a series of 159 prints commissioned by Queen Victoria, Prince Albert, the King and Queen of Spain, the Emperors of France, Russia and Austria, the Duc de Montpensier, among others. Although known mainly for his collections of photographs of landscapes, monuments and public works, he was commissioned to carry out a portrait of

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(her notes in her Journal for 14 November 1861 state she was ‘dressed in evening dress, with diadem & jewels’ and was ‘photographed for the Queen of Spain by Mr Clifford. He brought me one of hers, taken by him’. It was possibly one of the last portraits taken of the queen wearing a colour

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. Retrieved 2012-08-16.), and was also named Court Photographer to the

Queen Queen or QUEEN may refer to: Monarchy * Queen regnant, a female monarch of a Kingdom ** List of queens regnant * Queen consort, the wife of a reigning king * Queen dowager, the widow of a king * Queen mother, a queen dowager who is the mother ...

of Spain, accompanying her on the royal tour of

Andalucia Andalusia (, ; es, Andalucía ) is the southernmost autonomous community in Peninsular Spain. It is the most populous and the second-largest autonomous community in the country. It is officially recognised as a "historical nationality". The ...

in 1862.

Biography

Not much is known about his early life, but by November 1850, he was running a photographic portrait gallery in Madrid. He is buried in the

British Cemetery in Madrid The British Cemetery in Madrid (''Cementerio británico de Madrid'' or ''Cementerio de los Ingleses'') was opened in 1854 in the Carabanchel district of Madrid, Spain, and the first burials took place that year. Few burials take place in the ceme ...

Works

Most of the original copies of his works are held at the

Biblioteca Nacional de España The Biblioteca Nacional de España (''National Library of Spain'') is a major public library, the largest in Spain, and one of the largest in the world. It is located in Madrid, on the Paseo de Recoletos. History The library was founded by K ...

, the Palacio Real de Madrid and the Museo del Prado, but some are also to be found in the Museo de Historia de Madrid, the Museo Frederic Marès in Barcelona, and the archives of

Universidad de Navarra , image = UNAV.svg , latin_name = Universitas Studiorum Navarrensis , established = 17 October 1952 , type = Private, Roman Catholic , chancellor = Fernando Ocáriz Braña , president = María Iraburu Eliz ...

References

Bibliography

*Fontanella, Lee, ''Clifford en España. Un fotógrafo en la corte de Isabel II'', Madrid, El Viso, 1999. . *Piñar Samos, Javier y Sánchez Gómez, Carlos
«Clifford y los álbumes de la Academia»
''Academia: Boletín de la Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando'', núm. 98 y 99, primer y segundo semestre de 2004, págs. 9-52. *Sougez, Marie-Loup, ''Historia de la Fotografía'', Madrid, Cátedra, 2004. .

External links

Archives of the J. Paul Getty Museum
{{DEFAULTSORT:Clifford, Charles 1820 births 1863 deaths 19th-century Welsh photographers Photography in Spain Burials at the British Cemetery in Madrid