Dalziel made many wood engravings after photographs, and often these were translated into line by the unknown draughtsman William Rice Buckman. This example is particularly exciting because it was made after the radical photographer Julia Margaret Cameron. You can see how Buckman and Dalziel thought hard and creatively about ways to translate Cameron’s out-of-focus, ‘painterly’ style into precise yet dizzying lines. The subject, Sir John Herschel, adds another dimension to the story; he was an important scientific innovator in photography.
Dalziel after Julia Margaret Cameron (intermediary drawing made by William Rice Buckman), ‘Herschel’, illustration for the magazine Good Words (1871). Dalziel Archive Vol. XXIX (1871-74), British Museum reg. no. 1913,0415.190, print no. 361.
By Permission of the Trustees of The British Museum. All Rights Reserved © Sylph Editions, 2016