Artwork
Guy Little Theatrical Photographs
Guy Little Theatrical Photographs is a photographic photography by the Impressionist artist Samuel Alex Walker. It dates from 1880 and is held in the collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum. The image is an 1880 photographic portrait of Nellie Farren in her role as Ganem from the Gaiety Theatre production of The Forty Thieves.
About this work
This photograph is from 1880.
It shows Nellie Farren as Ganem in The Forty Thieves.
Photography was new and exciting back then, and actors often had photos taken for special cards.
These cards, called 'cartes de visite' and 'cabinet cards', were popular collectibles.
They usually had portraits or scenic views on them.
You can learn more about this style by looking at the movement: Realism.
Overview
The image is an 1880 photographic portrait of Nellie Farren in her role as Ganem from the Gaiety Theatre production of The Forty Thieves. It is an example of the Victorian practice of producing theatrical portraits on small photographic cards, which were widely collected and exchanged.
Subject & Meaning
Farren, a leading comic actress of the era, is depicted in full costume, allowing viewers to recognize the character and the production’s visual identity. The portrait serves both as a personal likeness and as promotional material for the popular melodrama, reflecting the close ties between theatre and emerging photographic media.
Technique & Style
The picture was created as an albumen print from a glass negative, the standard process for cartes de visite and cabinet cards in the mid‑to‑late nineteenth century. The image is mounted on a stiff card bearing the photographer’s imprint, a format that combined durability with the intimate size of a visiting card.
History & Provenance
Originally part of a larger set of cartes de visite and cabinet cards, the photograph was later removed from its original backing and bound into albums by Guy Tristram Little (d. 1953). Little, a solicitor and avid collector of theatrical ephemera, bequeathed his assembled albums to the Victoria and Albert Museum, where they now form part of the Theatre Collections.
Context
By the late 1870s they were superseded by larger cabinet cards, which remained popular until the 1890s when postcards and studio portraiture took precedence.
During the 1860s and 1870s, cartes de visite became a fashionable collectible, with subjects ranging from landscapes to celebrity portraits. By the late 1870s they were superseded by larger cabinet cards, which remained popular until the 1890s when postcards and studio portraiture took precedence. This photograph sits at the transition between those formats, illustrating the medium’s role in Victorian popular culture.
Artist & collection
Artist
Samuel Walker spent his days tucked in the back rows of London theaters, not on stage but with a camera.
