Artwork
Guy Little Theatrical Photograph
Guy Little Theatrical Photograph is a photographic photography by Cecil Beaton. It dates from 1929 and is held in the collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum. This portrait depicts the Victorian actress Mrs.
About this work
Overview
This portrait depicts the Victorian actress Mrs. Langtry, captured as a photographic carte de visite. The image is an albumen print produced from a glass negative and originally mounted on a stiff card bearing the photographer’s imprint.
Subject & Meaning
Mrs. Langtry, a noted stage performer of the era, is presented in a pose typical of theatrical portraiture, offering a glimpse of her public persona and the visual culture surrounding actors in the late nineteenth century.
Technique & Style
The photograph utilizes the albumen printing process, a standard method of the period that involved coating paper with egg white and silver nitrate. The small format, roughly the size of a visiting card, aligns with the popular carte de visite style that circulated widely among collectors.
History & Provenance
The image formed part of a larger assemblage of cartes de visite and cabinet cards that were later removed from their original card backs and compiled into albums by Guy Tristram Little (d. 1953). Little, a solicitor and avid collector of ephemera, bequeathed the collection to the Victoria and Albert Museum.
Context
During the 1860s, cartes de visite became a fashionable means of exchanging personal likenesses, with subjects ranging from landscapes to theatrical figures. By the late 1870s they were superseded by larger cabinet cards, which in turn gave way to postcards and studio portraits by the 1890s.
Artist & collection
Artist
Sir Cecil Walter Hardy Beaton was a British photographer, designer, and diarist. Renowned for his elegant and often theatrical style, Beaton's work appeared in leading publications such as Vogue and Harper's Bazaar. He…
Guy Little Theatrical Photograph
Guy Little Theatrical Photographs
Guy Little Theatrical Photographs
Guy Little Theatrical Photographs
Guy Little Theatrical Photograph
Guy Little Theatrical Photograph
Guy Little Theatrical Photograph
Guy Little Theatrical Photographs
Guy Little Theatrical Photograph
Guy Little Theatrical Photographs