Guy Little Theatrical Photograph
1850
photographic
From the collection of Victoria and Albert Museum
1850
photographic
From the collection of Victoria and Albert Museum
Guy Little Theatrical Photograph is a 1850 photographic by Charles Thurston Thomson, held at Victoria and Albert Museum.
This is a 19th-century photograph of actor Wilson Barrett. It’s a portrait meant for fans, not a fine art print. Albumen prints like this used glass negatives and stiff card backing with the photographer’s name. Fans collected these small cards by the millions in the 1860s. They were called cartes de visite and showed actors, views, and art. Look up the Victoria and Albert Museum.
This albumen print depicts actor Wilson Barrett and was produced as a carte de visite, a small photographic portrait mounted on card, during the 1860s when such images were widely collected. The photograph was later removed from its backing and included in an album assembled by collector Guy Tristram Little, whose theatrical and photographic holdings were donated to the Victoria and Albert Museum in the early 20th century. Cartes de visite, introduced in 1854, were albumen prints made from glass negatives and often featured actors in theatrical or everyday attire. The format was eventually…
Read the full account in the museum source.
Charles Thurston Thomson made theater photos in the late 1800s. His Guy Little Theatrical Photograph shows actors mid-scene, frozen in the style of the era’s staged portraits. The grainy silver prints capture gaslit…
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