Beatrice, 1866

Beatrice, 1866. Photographed by Julia Margaret Cameron.

Photo restoration and colorization by me.

Modeled closely on a painting then attributed to the Italian Baroque artist Guido Reni, May Prinsep plays the role of Beatrice Cenci, a sixteenth-century Roman woman whose sad tale of rape, revenge, and execution was retold in a nineteenth-century play by Percy Bysshe Shelley. While Cameron’s portraits of “men great thro’ genius” had the built-in appeal of celebrity, her portraits of “women great thro’ love” most often depended upon literary, artistic, historical, or biblical allusion for broader commercial appeal.

You can find original link to the photo here

https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/271522