Untitled [Girl with sword],

ca. 1898

<p>In 1898–99 White made a series of chiaroscuro, expressive studies of Letitia Felix in a dark robe assuming attitudes representing fear or sorrow, accompanied by historicizing props—a sword, chest, and harp. These works, including this frontal study where Letitia places a sword across her lap, come closest to the mood of staged photographs by the Victorian photographer Julia Margaret Cameron, who was exalted by the new generation of art photographers as a rebellious amateur rejecting the detail and standardization of commercial studio portraiture. White owned later carbon prints (made from the original negatives) of Cameron’s works and recalled in his youth admiring her costume study <em>A Dalmatian Maid</em>.</p>