Photograph of the Day

Here is an uncharacteristic portrait of Woolf. She posed for Vogue in 1924 wearing her mother's Victorian dress. Her mother, Julia Stephen, was a legendary beauty who often posed for Woolf's great aunt Julia Margaret Cameron (there is a photograph of her in this very same dress!) It is unclear why Woolf would agree to sit for such a conventional photograph. She was known to be a bit of snob and looked down at middle brow culture. In fact, the nose that was such a big deal in the movie The Hours, which supposedly made Nicole Kidman ugly, was a point of pride for Woolf who remarked that she found her long nose quite useful in looking down on people. If you want to learn more about this photograph, check out Virginia Woolf in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction.