Artwork
Guy Little Theatrical Photograph
Guy Little Theatrical Photograph is a photographic photography by James Lafayette. It dates from 1850 and is held in the collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum. Photograph of May Fortescue.
About this work
Overview
These small portrait cards, widely collected in the 1860s, were eventually replaced by larger cabinet cards and later forms of photographic portraiture.
The photograph depicts May Fortescue and was produced by the studio of James Lafayette in 1850, during the early period when photography was gaining popularity in Victorian society. It is an albumen print made from a glass negative, mounted on stiff card with the photographer’s imprint, typical of the carte de visite format patented in 1854. The image is part of a large collection of theatrical cartes de visite and cabinet cards assembled by Guy Tristram Little, later donated to the Victoria and Albert Museum. These small portrait cards, widely collected in the 1860s, were eventually replaced by larger cabinet cards and later forms of photographic portraiture.
Artist & collection
Artist
James Stack Lauder (1853–1923), known professionally as James Lafayette, was an Irish portrait photographer who was managing director of Lafayette Ltd, a company in Dublin specializing in society photographs, from 1898 to 1923.
