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task of creating an image of dignity and progress from
the disorder and corruption of her reign.”
The resulting portraits, whoever instigated them,
were published widely. They were available in large
print format (275mm × 215mm) and as carte-de-visite.
Two versions of the carte-de-visite are in the collection
of London’s National Portrait Gallery, one published
by Clifford himself, the other, hand tinted, published
by Cundall and Downes.
Clifford’s work featured in several exhibitions of the
Société française de photographie—of which he was a
member—while he only contributed work to the 1854
exhibition of the Photographic Society in London. He
offered forty-six images for sale in the 1858 exhibi-
tion of the Architectural Photographers Association in
London—four shillings and nine pence un-mounted,
fi ve shillings and sixpence mounted.
After his death in early 1863, and in the face of stiff
commercial competition, his wife Jane attempted for a
time to keep the business operating.
John Hannavy
Further Reading
Fontanella, Lee and Kurtz, Gerardo, Charles Clifford, Fotografo
de la España de Isabel II. Madrid: El Viso, 1996.
Fonatenella, Lee, Clifford en España: Un fotógrafo en la Corte
de Isabel II Madrid: El Viso Ediciones 1999
Henisch, Heinz K., & Bridget, A., The Photographic Experience
1839–1914, University Park: Pennsylvania State University
Press, 1994.
COBURN, ALVIN LANGDON (1882–1966)
American photographer
Alvin Langdon Coburn was born in Boston on June 11,
- He was given his fi rst camera, a 4" × 5" Kodak,
on his eighth birthday. Coburn’s interest in photography
was further nourished by his distant cousin F. Holland
Day, who in 1899 encouraged the young Coburn and
his mother to travel to London. While in England, Co-
burn had his work exhibited at the Royal Photographic
Society and with the Linked Ring. In 1902, he opened
a studio in New York City and became a member of the
Photo-Secession.
Coburn moved back to England in 1904 and took
classes in the photogravure process in 1906, and in 1909
used his own copperplate press to print his photographs
which were published in his books London (1909), New
York (1910), and Men of Mark (1913). Coburn was a
champion of photography as an art form and helped to
organize exhibitions of contemporary photographers
along side the prints he made from Julia Margaret
Cameron’s and Hill & Adamson’s original negatives.
In 1916–17 Coburn created abstract prismatic portraits
which the poet Ezra Pound named Vortographs. After
1923 Coburn showed less interest in the art of photogra-
phy and devoted his time to mysticism. He was residing
in Wales when he died on November 23, 1966.
Diane E. ForsbergCOLE, HENRY SIR (1808–1882)
Henry Cole was born in Bath, England, on 15 July 1808
to Laetitia (née Dormer) and Captain Henry Robert
Cole, an army offi cer. Educated at Christ’s Hospital
School, London, in 1823 he gained employment as a
civil servant, embarking on what was to be a highly
infl uential career in public service and more specifi -
cally, in the world of art education and museums. Cole
chiefl y organized the Great Exhibition of 1851, which
introduced an unprecedented gathering of European and
American photographs to huge audiences, and, under his
supervision, was itself photographically documented. In
1856 Cole became the founding Director of the South
Kensington (later Victoria and Albert) Museum where
he worked until 1873. An amateur photographer Cole,
was a pioneer in the appreciation of photography. He
collected for the museum photographs both of and as art
and purchased and exhibited work by radical contem-
porary photographers, such as Julia Margaret Cameron
(1815–1879). He also established the museum’s photo-
graphic service for copying works of art for educational
purposes, and enabled Royal Engineers to be trained in
photography by the museum’s fi rst staff photographer
Charles Thurston Thompson (1816–1868). No other
museum in the world did so much for photography or
collected so well at this time. Knighted in 1875, Sir
Henry Cole died in London on 18 April 1882.
Anne-Marie EzeCOLLARD, AUGUSTE-HIPPOLYTE
(1812–c. 1897)
French photographer
Auguste-Hippolyte Collard was born in Valençay, Indre,
France, on February 1, 1812. After marrying in Paris in
1838, he settled in Poitiers. There, for 10 years, he pros-
pered as a wood frame gilder. The year 1850 marked a
turn in his career, henceforth dedicated to photography.
Helped by his two younger brothers Jules and Victor
Brutus, he set up his own workshop in Paris in 1855 and
created in 1856 the “Collard and Cie” company—which
went bankrupt two years later. He produced numerous
portraits, and built up a reputation in the reproduction
of works of art. Today most of these prints have disap-
peared.
Towards the end of the 1850s, mostly through com-
missions, he began using photography for civil engi-