Sophie Mary Wallace was an early pioneer of flower photography, but her original autochromes have gone missing. Jane Powers does a little digging to find out more.
'Here," says an article published in 1908 in the British magazine Gardening Illustrated, "we see a photograph taken in the north in the wild county of Donegal, showing how cordylines may be trusted here." And it goes on to note, rather sniffily: "Wonderful as this is, the writer must say that he has little interest in such plants as this in either France or England. Things for our climate are quite different, and certainly more beautiful, though it is nice when enjoying such a climate to see what may be done." Indeed. But never mind the writer's reservations (except to pause for a moment to consider how the cordyline, a century later, is marching merrily across England, a guest of global warming). The picture in question, depicting the strappy leaves of an adolescent cordyline erupting from a patch of rhododendrons, as a young lady stands coyly by, was photographed by Sophie Mary Wallace at Ardnamona on Lough Eske.
Sophie (also known as Sophia) was an accomplished professional photographer, but little is known of her career. Born on January 2nd 1873, she was the second child of Arthur Robert and Georgiana Wallace, who bought the Ardnamona estate with its Victorian house in the 1870s. Until his retirement around the turn of the century, Arthur was an official at the chief secretary's office at Dublin Castle. How much time the family spent at the Donegal house is unknown, but it's possible that they lived there almost full-time after Arthur retired.
What is certain, however, is that while in residence they lived life to the full. A photo album (from where the black and white pictures on these pages come) shows, among other things, fishing on the lake, shooting parties, a dance, and a rustic gazebo for viewing tennis games. And much, much horticulture. A neatly ploughed vegetable patch; a greenhouse fronted by dahlias, red hot pokers and gladioli; and many trees and shrubs - both newly planted and mature - are preserved in fading monochrome on its foxed pages. At least half the photographs date from the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and are professionally taken - the work of Sophie Mary Wallace, it is safe to assume.
During the first half of the Wallaces' tenure at Ardnamona they planted extensively, revelling in the new species that plant hunters were then bringing in from Asia. The smaller plants have disappeared, but many of the larger ones have thrived. Some have done rather too well, such as the Japanese bamboo, Sasa palmata, planted in 1897 (just eight years after its introduction to the west), and now covering acres of the property.
But the pride of Ardnamona was, and still is, the rhododendrons. Some of the individuals in the naturalistic groves of R. arboreum planted by the Wrays (the Wallaces' predecessors) are now nearly 20 metres high. The Wallaces added hundreds of specimens: rare and often tender species from the Himalayas. They grew so well, and seeded about so readily, that they look as if they might be native to Donegal - which was noted in 1957 in an advertisement by some later owners of Ardnamona, who ran the house as a fishermen's hotel.
The 84-year-old Sophie Wallace gently corrected them from her nursing home in Rathgar, writing: "Your advert implies that Himalayan rhododendrons grew naturally there. They were the collection of very many years. Some came from Lord Lansdowne's estate in Valentia Island, some from Cornwall, many from Lord Aberconwy's place in north Wales, and because the soil, climate and shelter suited them so well they grew to unknown heights." (Her letter then goes on to give advice on the best places on the estate to shoot wild duck, rabbit and hare.)
The Himalayan rhododendrons were new to cultivation when the Wallaces planted them, and they grew fat and healthy in the mild and damp environment. These, and the other plants that grew so well here, made fitting subjects for Sophie's excursions into the relatively new medium of photography.
Her camera was kept busy with the prime specimens at Ardnamona - many of them previously untried and near-tender species - and her work was published widely. Her 1957 letter proudly notes: "I have done hundreds of photos there and elsewhere and all are sold and I paid my expenses. You will find them in every garden book (Robinson's etc)."
"Robinson" was Irishman William Robinson, champion of wild gardening, writer of many books, and founder of a number of magazines, including Gardening Illustrated, where Sophie's work appeared from time to time.
However, the largest-known body of her work is collected in the Ardnamona album. The leather-covered book was absent from the Donegal house for decades, but was returned just a few years ago to the present owner, Amabel Clarke, and her late husband, Kieran.
It caught the attention of photographer, Tim Durham, who was teaching a course at Ardnamona. He was struck by how masterful the 100-year-old photos were. "The quality of the pictures is remarkable," he says, and chooses as his favourite a dark and highly textured study of a bed of ferns, where every frond looks like a delicate work of filigree.
Yet what really piqued his interest were five lines in Sophie Mary Wallace's eight-page letter from Rathgar: "I also took autochromes, coloured photos on glass which I keep here as souvenirs and can use with a special lamp." Autochromes, photographic slides coated with potato starch grains, and designed to be viewed with a lantern, were patented by the Lumière brothers in the early 1900s. They ceased being produced in the 1930s when more sophisticated colour film became available.
Where were Sophie's autochromes now, wondered Tim Durham. She wrote the letter less than two years before her death on May 19th 1959, so it was reasonable to believe that they were still in her possession when she died. Her will, which Durham sought out, offered no clues. But the list of her few possessions and their intended recipients, prepared by her executors after her death, whispered two tantalising hints.
"The nephews and nieces" were to receive "one green suitcase containing photographs, deceased's bible, and other articles of family interest," while "Mrs Arthur Wallace" (perhaps the widow of her younger brother, Arthur) was to be given "coloured glass wooden plates and wooden viewing stand. The plates are of family interest only and have no real intrinsic value." Could these have been the autochromes? Or were the photographs in the green suitcase actually the autochromes? If anyone out there can shed some light on this mystery, we'd like to hear from you.
DIARY DATE plant sale at St Brigid's Parish May fair, in the rectory grounds, Merville Road, Stillorgan, Co Dublin. Next Saturday, May 21st, 10am - 2pm.