Wiliam Kilburn (geb. 1818 in Ely Place, London, gest. 1891 auf der Isle of Wight) war ein britischer Fotograf (Daguerreotypist).
William Kilburn Sein Bruder Douglas Kilburn war Fotograf in Australien
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BearbeitenAndrew Messner „William Kilburn’s 1848 Chartist Daguerreotypes“, Posted on 10 January 2018 William Kilburn’s fascinating Daguerreotypes of the Chartist mass meeting held at Kennington Common (now Kennington Park), London, on 10 April 1848.
We also know comparatively little about Kilburn [...]
William Kilburn and the Royal Family
Despite being one of the first photographers to work for the British Royal family, William Kilburn remains a quite obscure figure: no detailed biographical scholarly research has appeared to date.15 Briefly, he was born at Ely Place, London, in 1818 to Catherine (1787–1874) and Thomas Kilburn (1786–1830).16 Thomas was a warehouseman and merchant whose Irish-born father William (1745–1818) was a skilled illustrator who became a successful calico printer; by the time Chartism emerged in the late 1830s, the extended Kilburn family was relatively prosperous having connections with East India trade and the London banking and insurance industries.17 At the time of the 1841 census William described himself as an accountant resident with his widowed mother, siblings and servants at Haverstock Terrace, Hampstead.18 William married Louisa Ludlam Tootal in 185419 and they had three children.20 Louisa was a member of a prominent textile manufacturing family and subsequent census records suggest that the Kilburns enjoyed a comfortable middle-class existence attended by household servants and a governess.21
Kilburn first photographed the Royal family in April 1847 and Prince Albert purchased the Chartist Daguerreotypes the following year.22 [...]
Unfortunately, we do not know how or when Kilburn developed an interest in photography—or who trained him. That said, from early 1847 he became one of the few licensed Daguerreotypists working in London.25 It’s also clear that Kilburn rapidly became an accomplished practitioner, garnering Royal patronage within a couple of months of commencing operations at 234 Regent Street. Initially, Kilburn specialised in portraits colour-tinted by the French miniaturist Léon Mansion (André Léon Larue) who had provided the same service to Antoine Claudet, one the earliest commercial photographers in Britain.26 [...] Securing Royal patronage so quickly likely was of great benefit to Kilburn’s early career and, ultimately, his clients included the renowned Swedish soprano Jenny Lind, prominent politicians such as Richard Cobden and Benjamin Disraeli, and other famous Victorians such as Florence Nightingale and Charles Dickens.27 William’s elder brother Douglas (1811–71) also became a pioneer photographer in the Australian colonies, commencing operations in Melbourne soon after William opened his first London studio.28 Later operating from 222 Regent Street, in 1861 William was still styling himself ‘Photographer to the Queen’ but he also had other business interests and, by the end of the decade, he had retired to the Isle of Wight where he died in 1891.29
[...] Kilburn first photographed the Royal family at Buckingham Palace on 22 April 1847.30 Despite utilising the Palace green house to make the most of a clear Spring day, he was unable to successfully capture Victoria and Albert’s relatively young children; on the other hand, Victoria found her likeness ‘very successful’ and, a few months later. Kilburn claimed to have been appointed ‘Photographist to Her Majesty and His Royal Highness Prince Albert’.31 By early 1852, however, Victoria had become overtly self-conscious about her appearance, describing her likeness in one Kilburn family portrait taken at Windsor Castle in February 1852 as ‘horrid’ (as can be seen from the surviving Daguerreotype, she also seems to have erased her face from the offending image).32 Further, in two roughly contemporaneous Kilburn portraits, also of the monarch and her five eldest children, Victoria completely obscured her face in a most unconventional manner by posing in profile while wearing a bonnet. The Queen’s plainly unsettled relationship with the camera c. 1852 perhaps explains why Kilburn seems to have disappeared from Royal orbit at about this time.
Andrew Messner, „William Kilburn’s 1848 Chartist Daguerreotypes“, Posted on 10 January 2018, https://andrewmessner.net/2018/01/10/was-insurrection-intended-on-10-april-1848-a-look-at-photographic-evidence/
Zu Douglas Kilburn siehe: https://www.ngv.vic.gov.au/essay/the-sorcerers-machine-a-photographic-portrait-by-douglas-kilburn-1847-2/ The sorcerer's machine: a photographic portrait by Douglas Kilburn, 1847 By Isobel Crombie | 4 Jun 14, Art Journal 40