The Riches of Dimbola

Dimbola Museum & Galleries has lived many lives, it’s been a family home and photographic studio, a hotel, and home for ne’re do wells. Sara Whatley talks to its current custodians, The Julia Margaret Cameron Trust, to find out more about the legacy of its rich history

In 1860 Julia Margaret Cameron moved to Dimbola in Freshwater and stayed there for the next 15 years until 1875. During this time she became a pioneering photographer, burning hot and bright in her new passion. Dimbola was her home, her workplace and her inspiration.

After the Camerons left, the building gradually fell into a state of neglect but today it has been rescued by the Julia Margaret Cameron Trust and returned to its former glory with as many original features as possible. “When we took over in 1994, we were faced with two separate houses, both in some disrepair,” said Brian Hinton, Executive Chair, Julia Margaret Cameron Trust.

“We smashed down the two linking doorways with a sledgehammer, and then set about re-routing the back stairs, stripping away modern wallpaper, removing cheap partitions, and a host of baths, baby belling cookers and sinks, all of which went in a garden sale. Then we pulled down the sagging ceilings, chopped off a tree branch growing through one window, and repainted and redecorated. We put up steel joists to save the upstairs galleries from falling into the rooms beneath. We then constructed a new tea room, a dark room for budding photographers, and a shop.”

(Side of the house before retoration)

Julia Margaret Cameron was born in Calcutta in 1815, the fourth of seven beautiful sisters. Her father was an East India Company official, and her mother descended from French aristocracy.

In 1836, Julia met British Astronomer Sir John Herschel, who introduced her to photography. It is said that Herschel was the first person to use the term photography, coming from the Greek words meaning ‘light’ and ‘drawing’ – together the words mean ‘drawing with light’. They remained life-long friends and correspondents on photographic matters.

Soon after, Julia met and married Charles Hay Cameron, 20 years her senior. The family moved to the UK in 1848 – they already had four children by then – and lived in various places including Putney, London, and Tunbridge Wells in Kent, before settling on the Isle of Wight in 1860. They found Dimbola and went about making it their family home, and place of work for Julia.

When the Camerons first moved there it was two properties, and they built the tower in the middle to turn it into a grander home. They chose the name Dimbola after the tea and coffee plantations they owned in Dimbula, Ceylon (now Sri Lanka).

(Julia facing left, by Henry Herschel Hay Cameron)

Julia kept memoirs through her  life, which document some of the changes she made to the house, such as turning the old ‘glazed fowl house’ into a studio. “In Julia’s time it was very much a family home, with lots of dinner parties, dances and home theatricals, plus all the work she did in outside studios in the garden, the robing, set creation (using lots of vegetation from the garden) and the sheer messy business of wet collodion. An old coal hole became the developing room, full of dangerous fumes and chemicals,” said Brian.

One of the most astonishing things about Julia Margaret Cameron was the ferocity of her photographic career, which only lasted about 11 years. She was gifted a camera by her daughter and son-in-law for her 48th birthday and immediately dedicated herself to the art. And for Julia photography was Art with a capital A, something she was insistent and vocal about.

Within two years of starting her photography career she had sold and gifted some of her prints to the South Kensington Museum (now the Victoria & Albert) and they offered her two rooms to use as portrait studios.

Julia voraciously photographed her family, her house staff, and many of her friends, including member of The Freshwater Circle – friend and neighbour Poet Laureate Alfred Lord Tennyson, sculptor and painter G.F. Watts, and Alice in Wonderland author Lewis Carroll. Even passers-by got dragged into her studios at Dimbola and dressed up in costume. She liked to play with the characters from Shakespeare, Milton and the Bible, creating backdrops and setting scenes.

At the time Julia’s style was very forward thinking, and not always well received with critics. She favoured the soft-focus look, achieved by not screwing the lens into the camera to the point of definite focus, and using very long exposure times. She also kept the marks of her workings – scratches and smudges – on her finished pictures.

“When Julia left in 1875, the house remained in the family’s ownership, and we have photos of Vanessa Bell and her sister Virginia Woolf in 1895, mourning their mother Julia, who was Mrs Cameron’s niece, and a key photographic model for her,” explained Brian.

The photographs of Julia Stephen are easy to love; soft focus and angelic. It is clear to see the resemblance of Virginia Woolf in her mother’s angular features and deep-set eyes.

“When the family finally gave up ownership, it descended into a very sad state, empty and decaying, and then became a family hotel, and then in turn a home for unmarried mothers, a place for Canadian troops en-route to D-Day to bivouac, and a home for ne’er do wells. By 1970 it was two separate houses, with bungalows built in the grounds, and most of the original features covered up with chipboard.

“The Julia Margaret Cameron Trust has resurrected it and made it far more what it was like in Julia’s day, with William Morris wallpaper, a lovely Victorian style tearoom, and splendid galleries, plus a permanent exhibition of Julia’s work,” said Brian.

Another permanent exhibition you will find at Dimbola today is of the 1970 Isle of Wight Festival. The third and most famous of the original Isle of Wight Festivals was held on Afton Down, just a short distance away and within sight and sound of what is now Dimbola Museum & Galleries.

“Dimbola is home to this permanent exhibition because of its deep connection to the Island’s artistic and cultural legacy,” said Emmylou Morey Clark, Retail Manager at Dimbola. “Julia Margaret Cameron was one of the most important early photographers, and her house and studio continue to serve as a place of creative inspiration. The museum has long been committed to preserving the rich history of the Isle of Wight, and the 1970 festival is an integral part of that history.”

For the Isle of Wight, the 1970 festival was a defining cultural milestone, marking the culmination of a decade of social and musical change. The display includes original posters, photographs and a panorama of the site by Chris Weston which gives an idea of the audience of the estimated 600,000 who gathered to watch Jimi Hendrix, The Doors and Joni Mitchell among others.

Visitors can also see the bronze statue of Jimi Hendrix in the garden, and the recent photographs and posters from the revived Isle of Wight Festival, which started again in June 2002.

Dimbola has seen many lives pass through its doors over the years, amongst them one of the most influential and important photographers of the 19th century. Today it serves as a home for art and photography, but also stands as a reminder of the rich cultural heritage the Isle of Wight has to offer.