Artwork
Guy Little Theatrical Photograph
Guy Little Theatrical Photograph is a photographic photography by Henry Van Der Weyde. It dates from 1850 and is held in the collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum.
About this work
Overview
The image is a late‑nineteenth‑century portrait of actress Mary Anderson, produced by photographer Henry Van Der Weyde. It is an albumen print made from a glass negative, typical of the photographic processes used for theatrical portraiture in the Victorian era.
Subject & Meaning
Anderson is presented in costume, reflecting the practice of actors commissioning images to promote their stage personas. Such portraits served both as personal memorabilia and as promotional material for audiences and patrons.
Technique & Style
The photograph employs the albumen printing method, in which egg‑white emulsion on paper captures the image from a glass plate negative. The resulting print is mounted on a stiff card, a format that evolved from the smaller cartes de visite to the larger cabinet cards popular in the 1870s and 1880s.
History & Provenance
The print originated in a collection of cartes de visite and cabinet cards assembled by Guy Tristram Little (d. 1953). Little, a solicitor and avid collector of ephemera, removed the original card backs and bound the images in albums before bequeathing them to the Victoria and Albert Museum, where they now form part of the Theatre Collections.
Artist & collection
Artist
Henry Van der Weyde carried a pocket watch he never used just to keep strangers talking.
