JANE CLIFFORD. THE DOLPHIN'S TREASURE

This exhibition brings together 58 photographs of the works that make up The Treasure of the Dolphin, a collection of rock crystal objects and precious stones preserved in the Museo del Prado. The photographs were acquired by the Museo Universidad de Navarra in 2011 and 2018. The authorship of this documentary set, commissioned in 1863 by the South Kensington Museum in London (now the Victoria and Albert Museum), is attributed to the British Jane Clifford, widow of Charles Clifford, who had just been left in charge of his studio, established in Madrid since 1850. It is probably the first project of these characteristics carried out by a woman in Spain.

As a complement to Jane Clifford's work, four photographs are exhibited that are part of a later work of documentation of the Treasury, carried out by Jean Laurent in 1878.

ACTIVITIES RELATED TO THE EXHIBITION

THE ARTIST

Jane Clifford (¿?-c.1885) was a British photographer who worked in Spain between the fifties and sixties of the nineteenth century. She was the first woman to join the French Photographic Society. She collaborated for years in the studio of her husband Charles Clifford, until she inherited it on his death in January 1862. Months later she undertook the photographic documentation project of El Tesoro del Delfín, the first of its kind undertaken by a woman in Spain. She continued in charge of the studio for the following years, making use of her extensive photographic archive and taking portraits.

The Commissioner. MARIO FERNANDEZ

Mario Fernández is a professor, curator and curator. He has extensive knowledge of photography and its documentation. He has a degree in Economics and Art History. He teaches at various academic centers. He has taught in the official Master of Art Market of the Claves de Arte Foundation (Nebrija University of Madrid) as well as History of Photography within the seminar 'Dialogues in contemporary art: Photography-Painting approaches and confrontations' at the S.E.K University of Segovia. He has worked as a curator at the Museo Sorolla and the Museo del Prado. In 2017, he curated the exhibition Watkins, the landscape of the United States in the Sorolla photographic collection.

RELATED ACTIVITIES

About Jean Clifford. Performative lecture by María Gimeno