![Rejlander, 1873 double selfportrait](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4d/Rejlander%2C_1873_double_selfportrait.jpeg)
Oscar Gustave Rejlander (
Stockholm
Stockholm () is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in Sweden by population, largest city of Sweden as well as the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, largest urban area in Scandinavia. Approximately 980,000 people liv ...
, 19 October 1813 –
Clapham
Clapham () is a suburb in south west London, England, lying mostly within the London Borough of Lambeth, but with some areas (most notably Clapham Common) extending into the neighbouring London Borough of Wandsworth.
History
Early history
T ...
, London, 18 January 1875) was a pioneering Victorian
art photographer
Fine-art photography is photography created in line with the vision of the photographer as artist, using photography as a medium for creative expression. The goal of fine-art photography is to express an idea, a message, or an emotion. This stand ...
and an expert in
photomontage
Photomontage is the process and the result of making a composite photograph by cutting, gluing, rearranging and overlapping two or more photographs into a new image. Sometimes the resulting composite image is photographed so that the final image ...
. His collaboration with
Charles Darwin
Charles Robert Darwin ( ; 12 February 1809 – 19 April 1882) was an English naturalist, geologist, and biologist, widely known for his contributions to evolutionary biology. His proposition that all species of life have descended fr ...
on ''
The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals
''The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals'' is Charles Darwin's third major work of evolutionary theory, following ''On the Origin of Species'' (1859) and '' The Descent of Man'' (1871). Initially intended as a chapter in ''The Desce ...
'' has assured him a position in the history of
behavioural science
Behavioral sciences explore the cognitive processes within organisms and the behavioral interactions between organisms in the natural world. It involves the systematic analysis and investigation of human and animal behavior through naturalistic o ...
and psychiatry.
Biography
According to his naturalisation papers, Rejlander was born in Stockholm on 19 October 1813. He was the son of Carl Gustaf Rejlander, a
stonemason
Stonemasonry or stonecraft is the creation of buildings, structures, and sculpture using stone as the primary material. It is one of the oldest activities and professions in human history. Many of the long-lasting, ancient shelters, temples, mo ...
and
Swedish Army
The Swedish Army ( sv, svenska armén) is the land force of the Swedish Armed Forces.
History
Svea Life Guards dates back to the year 1521, when the men of Dalarna chose 16 young able men as body guards for the insurgent nobleman Gustav Vas ...
Officer. During his youth, his family moved to the Swedish-speaking community in
Rauma,
Grand Duchy of Finland
The Grand Duchy of Finland ( fi, Suomen suuriruhtinaskunta; sv, Storfurstendömet Finland; russian: Великое княжество Финляндское, , all of which literally translate as Grand Principality of Finland) was the predecessor ...
(then part of
Russia
Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...
). In the 1830s, he relocated to England, initially settling in
Lincoln
Lincoln most commonly refers to:
* Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865), the sixteenth president of the United States
* Lincoln, England, cathedral city and county town of Lincolnshire, England
* Lincoln, Nebraska, the capital of Nebraska, U.S.
* Lincol ...
, England. In the 1850s he abandoned his original profession as a painter and portrait
miniaturist
A portrait miniature is a miniature portrait painting, usually executed in gouache, watercolor, or enamel. Portrait miniatures developed out of the techniques of the miniatures in illuminated manuscripts, and were popular among 16th-century eli ...
, apparently after seeing how well a photograph captured the fold of a sleeve.
He set up as a portraitist in the industrial
Midlands
The Midlands (also referred to as Central England) are a part of England that broadly correspond to the Kingdom of Mercia of the Early Middle Ages, bordered by Wales, Northern England and Southern England. The Midlands were important in the Ind ...
town of
Wolverhampton
Wolverhampton () is a city, metropolitan borough and administrative centre in the West Midlands, England. The population size has increased by 5.7%, from around 249,500 in 2011 to 263,700 in 2021. People from the city are called "Wulfrunian ...
, probably around 1846. In the early 1850s he learned the
wet-collodion and waxed-paper processes at great speed with Nicholas Henneman in London, and then changed his business to that of a photography studio. He undertook genre work and portraiture. Rejlander also produced nude studies, mainly for use as studies by painters, and later revealed that his early work was made with the aid of a local troupe of theatrical performers.
![Rejlander, Hard Times](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/39/Rejlander%2C_Hard_Times.jpg)
Rejlander undertook many experiments to perfect his photography, including
combination printing
Combination printing is the photographic technique of using the negatives of two or more images in conjunction with one another to create a single image.
Similar to dual-negative landscape photography, combination printing was technically much m ...
, which he did not invent; however, he created more elaborate and convincing composite photographs than any prior photographer. He had articles feature in the ''Wolverhampton Chronicle'' newspaper, on 15 November 1854 an article called "Improvement in Calotypes, by Mr. O.G. Rejlander, of Wolverhampton" it suggests that by 1854 he was experimenting with combination printing from several negatives. He was a friend of photographer
Charles Lutwidge Dodgson
Charles Lutwidge Dodgson (; 27 January 1832 – 14 January 1898), better known by his pen name Lewis Carroll, was an English author, poet and mathematician. His most notable works are ''Alice's Adventures in Wonderland'' (1865) and its sequel ...
(better known by the
pen name
A pen name, also called a ''nom de plume'' or a literary double, is a pseudonym (or, in some cases, a variant form of a real name) adopted by an author and printed on the title page or by-line of their works in place of their real name.
A pen na ...
Lewis Carroll), who collected Rejlander's work and corresponded with him on technical matters. Rejlander later created one of the best known and most revealing portraits of Dodgson. Like Dodgson, Rejlander's work included many pictures of "undraped" children:
:"The remarks of his contemporaries bear witness to both his attainments and to the influence which he exercised. Some of his critics were exuberant. Thus one speaks of his undraped children as being as 'beautiful as those of Della Robbia, Flamingo, and Raphael.' Mr. H. Robinson, the immediate successor to Rejlander, who was also for many years a rival in seeking public applause for genre photography, calls the foregoing 'wonderful pictures of nude children.'"
![Oscar-gustave-rejlander two ways of life (HR, sepia)](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f8/Oscar-gustave-rejlander_two_ways_of_life_%28HR%2C_sepia%29.jpg)
Rejlander participated in the
Paris Exhibition
Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. Si ...
of 1855. In 1856 he made his best-known allegorical work, ''The Two Ways of Life''. This was a seamlessly
montaged combination print
Combination printing is the photographic technique of using the negatives of two or more images in conjunction with one another to create a single image.
Similar to dual-negative landscape photography, combination printing was technically much mo ...
made of thirty-two images (akin to the use of
Photoshop
Adobe Photoshop is a raster graphics editor developed and published by Adobe Inc. for Windows and macOS. It was originally created in 1988 by Thomas and John Knoll. Since then, the software has become the industry standard not only in raster ...
today, but then far more difficult to achieve) in about six weeks. First exhibited at the
Manchester
Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The t ...
Art Treasures Exhibition
The Art Treasures of Great Britain was an exhibition of fine art held in Manchester, England, from 5 May to 17 October 1857.[Queen Victoria
Victoria (Alexandrina Victoria; 24 May 1819 – 22 January 1901) was Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837 until Death and state funeral of Queen Victoria, her death in 1901. Her reign of 63 years and 21 ...]
ordered a 10-guinea copy to give to
Prince Albert. Victoria and Albert would go on to purchase three copies of the work, all of which are now lost.
Despite this royal patronage, controversy about ''The Two Ways of Life'' in
Scotland
Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...
in 1858 led to a secession of a large group from the Photographic Society of Scotland, the secessionists founding the
Edinburgh Photographic Society in 1861. They objected to the picture being shown with one half of it concealed by drapes. The picture was also shown at the
Birmingham
Birmingham ( ) is a city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1.145 million in the city proper, 2.92 million in the West ...
Photographic Society with no such furor or censorship. However the Photographic Society of Scotland later made amends and invited Rejlander to a grand dinner in his honour in 1866, held to open an exhibition that included many of his pictures.
![Alfred Tennyson, 1st Baron Tennyson](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/67/Alfred_Tennyson%2C_1st_Baron_Tennyson.jpg)
Rejlander moved his studio to Malden Road, London around 1862 and largely abandoned his early experiments with
double exposure
In photography and cinematography, a multiple exposure is the superimposition of two or more exposures to create a single image, and double exposure has a corresponding meaning in respect of two images. The exposure values may or may not be ide ...
,
photomontage
Photomontage is the process and the result of making a composite photograph by cutting, gluing, rearranging and overlapping two or more photographs into a new image. Sometimes the resulting composite image is photographed so that the final image ...
, photographic manipulation and
retouching. Instead, he became one of Britain's leading portraitists, creating pictures with psychological charge. He became a leading expert in photographic techniques, lecturing and publishing widely, and sold work through bookshops and art dealers. He also found subject-matter in London, photographing homeless London street children to produce popular 'social-protest' pictures such as "Poor Joe," also known as "Homeless".
Charles Lutwidge Dodgson visited Rejlander's Malden Road studio in 1863. Carroll was in the process of relocating his studio and sought Rejlander's advice regarding its design. Around 1863 Rejlander visited the
Isle of Wight
The Isle of Wight ( ) is a county in the English Channel, off the coast of Hampshire, from which it is separated by the Solent. It is the largest and second-most populous island of England. Referred to as 'The Island' by residents, the Isle of ...
at the request of
Julia Margaret Cameron
Julia Margaret Cameron (''née'' Pattle; 11 June 1815 – 26 January 1879) was a British photographer who is considered one of the most important portraitists of the 19th century. She is known for her soft-focus close-ups of famous Victorian m ...
and helped teach her photography.
Some of Rejlander's images were purchased as drawing-aids by Victorian painters of repute, such as
Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema
Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema, (; born Lourens Alma Tadema ; 8 January 1836 – 25 June 1912) was a Dutch painter who later settled in the United Kingdom becoming the last officially recognised denizen in 1873. Born in Dronryp, the Netherlands, ...
. In 1871 he contributed photographs to
Darwin's classic treatise on ''
The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals
''The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals'' is Charles Darwin's third major work of evolutionary theory, following ''On the Origin of Species'' (1859) and '' The Descent of Man'' (1871). Initially intended as a chapter in ''The Desce ...
''.
Personal life
Rejlander married Mary Bull in 1862, who was twenty-four years his junior. Mary had been his photographic model in Wolverhampton.
Rejlander became seriously ill from about 1874. He died in 1875 with several claims on his estate, and costly funeral expenses. The Edinburgh Photographic Society raised money for his widow on Rejlander's death, and helped set up the Rejlander Memorial Fund. His grave is in
Kensal Green Cemetery
Kensal Green Cemetery is a cemetery in the Kensal Green area of Queens Park in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea in London, England. Inspired by Père Lachaise Cemetery in Paris, it was founded by the barrister George Frederic ...
, and a new stone was placed there in 2012.
Collections
Rejlander's work is held in the permanent collections of many institutions worldwide, including the
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art
The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA) is a modern and contemporary art museum located in San Francisco, California. A nonprofit organization, SFMOMA holds an internationally recognized collection of modern and contemporary art, and was ...
, the
Harvard Art Museums
The Harvard Art Museums are part of Harvard University and comprise three museums: the Fogg Museum (established in 1895), the Busch-Reisinger Museum (established in 1903), and the Arthur M. Sackler Museum (established in 1985), and four research ...
, the
Clark Art Institute
The Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, commonly referred to as the Clark, is an art museum and research institution located in Williamstown, Massachusetts, United States. Its collection consists of European and American paintings, sculp ...
, the
Victoria and Albert Museum
The Victoria and Albert Museum (often abbreviated as the V&A) in London is the world's largest museum of applied arts, decorative arts and design, housing a permanent collection of over 2.27 million objects. It was founded in 1852 and nam ...
, the
J. Paul Getty Museum
The J. Paul Getty Museum, commonly referred to as the Getty, is an art museum in Los Angeles, California housed on two campuses: the Getty Center and Getty Villa.
The Getty Center is located in the Brentwood neighborhood of Los Angeles and fea ...
, the
University of Michigan Museum of Art
The University of Michigan Museum of Art in Ann Arbor, Michigan with is one of the largest university art museums in the United States. Built as a war memorial in 1909 for the university's fallen alumni from the Civil War, Alumni Memorial Hall ori ...
, the
Princeton University Art Museum
The Princeton University Art Museum (PUAM) is the Princeton University gallery of art, located in Princeton, New Jersey. With a collecting history that began in 1755, the museum was formally established in 1882, and now houses over 113,000 works o ...
, the
Museum of Fine Arts St. Petersburg, the
Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco
The Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco (FAMSF), comprising the de Young Museum in Golden Gate Park and the Legion of Honor in Lincoln Park, is the largest public arts institution in the city of San Francisco. The permanent collection of the ...
, the National Media Museum, Bradford, and the
Museum of Fine Arts, Houston
The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (MFAH), is an art museum located in the Houston Museum District of Houston, Texas. With the recent completion of an eight-year campus redevelopment project, including the opening of the Nancy and Rich Kinder Build ...
.
See also
*
Victorian headless portrait, a genre pioneered by Rejlander
References
Further reading
* Elliott, David (ed.): ''Oscar Gustave Rejlander. 1813(?)-1875.'' Modern Museum / Royal Photographic Society, Sweden, 1998. (A major exhibition catalogue, superbly printed.)
* Jones, E.Y.: ''Father of Art Photography: O.G. Rejlander 1813–75.'' (
David & Charles
David & Charles Ltd is an English publishing company. It is the owner of the David & Charles imprint, which specialises in craft and lifestyle publishing.
David and Charles Ltd acts as distributor for all David and Charles Ltd books and cont ...
, 1973.)
* Ovenden, Graham & Melville, Robert: ''Victorian Children.'' (Academy Editions, 1972.)
*
External links
George Eastman House: Oscar Gustave Rejlander Images CollectionWorks of Rejlanderat zeno.org
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Rejlander, Oscar Gustave
British portrait photographers
1813 births
1875 deaths
Artists' Rifles soldiers
Burials at Kensal Green Cemetery
People from Wolverhampton
Swedish emigrants to the United Kingdom
Charles Darwin
19th-century English photographers
Photographers from Staffordshire
Pictorialists