Alexandra Kitchin

Who was Alexandra Kitchin?

Alexandra 'Xie' Rhoda Kitchin was a notable 'child-friend' and favourite photographic subject of Charles Lutwidge Dodgson.

She was the daughter of Rev. George William Kitchin, who was Dodgson's colleague at Christ Church, Oxford, and later became Dean of Winchester and Dean of Durham. Her godmother was Princess Alexandra of Denmark, who had been a childhood friend of her mother. Xie had three younger brothers: George Herbert, Hugh Bridges, and Brook Taylor, and a younger sister, Dorothy Maud Mary. All were featured in Dodgson's photographs.

Dodgson photographed her around fifty times, from age four until just before her sixteenth birthday. The works they made together, often in tableau form, are commonly known to collectors, curators, and the contemporary artists who are inspired by them as the 'Xie' pictures.

She married Arthur Cardew, a civil servant and gifted amateur musician, on 17 April 1890. They had six children: Penelope, Christopher, Richard, Michael, Philip and Arthur. The family resided at 4 North View, Wimbledon Common, London, until Xie's death; they also had a country home at Saunton. She is buried at Putney Vale Cemetery.