In 1874 Julia Margaret Cameron, one of the most celebrated women photographers and portraitists of the nineteenth century, created a series of allegorical portraits of the heroes of the Arthurian legends to illustrate a collection of poems on the legends

In 1874 Julia Margaret Cameron, one of the most celebrated women photographers and portraitists of the nineteenth century, created a series of allegorical portraits of the heroes of the Arthurian legends to illustrate "Idylls of the King", a collection of poems on the legends of King Arthur by Queen Victoria's favourite poet, Lord Alfred Tennyson. In this series of photographs, regarded as the summit of Julia Cameron's work, people of Victorian England are captured in the guise of the wizard Merlin, the knight Lancelot and Elaine, Queen Guinevere and King Arthur