Guy Little Theatrical Photographs
1850
photographic
From the collection of Victoria and Albert Museum
1850
photographic
From the collection of Victoria and Albert Museum
Guy Little Theatrical Photographs is a 1850 photographic by W. & D. Downey, held at Victoria and Albert Museum.
This photo captures a 19th-century stage star in costume. Studio portraits like this were all the rage back then. The artist used glass negatives to print on stiff card, a common trick at the time. Nellie Farren was a big name on the Victorian stage. These “cartes de visite” were tiny visiting-card-sized photos that fans collected like trading cards. Check out the Victoria and Albert Museum.
This photograph by W. & D. Downey depicts Nellie Farren and was produced as an albumen print from a glass negative, typical of Victorian theatrical portraits. It was originally issued as a carte de visite, a small visiting-card-sized photograph popular in the 1860s, later mounted in an album compiled by collector Guy Tristram Little. The image belongs to a larger collection of theatrical cartes de visite and cabinet cards, which were later separated from their card mounts and preserved by the Victoria and Albert Museum. These photographs reflect the mid-19th-century trend of actors and…
Read the full account in the museum source.
These sisters turned a London studio into a backstage pass for Victorian theater.
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