George Meredith and his Daughters
1971.01.08
Coburn was an early 20th-century photographer who became a key figure in the development of American Pictorialism. Coburn worked primarily as a photo-portraitist and book illustrator, pursuits that frequently complimented each other. In 1904 Coburn returned to London with a commission from The Metropolitan Magazine to photograph England’s leading artists and writers, including George Meredith and H.G. Wells.
By 1930 Coburn had lost almost all interest in photography and he destroyed nearly 15,000 glass and film negatives – nearly his entire life’s output. This same year he donated his extensive collection of contemporary and historical photographs to the Royal Photographic Society. His deep interest in mysticism, and especially freemasonry, was to occupy the greatest part of the remainder of his life.