Alice Hughes (1857-1939)

Artist associated with 20 portraits
The eldest daughter of the society portrait painter Edward Hughes, she studied photography at the London Polytechnic and in 1891 opened a studio as the first gentlewoman professional photographer. She photographed her first royal sitter, the Duchess of Fife, with her baby, Princess Maud, in 1893. At the height of her fame Hughes employed sixty female staff. On the expiry of her lease in 1911 she sold her business, and later opened another studio on Ebury Street, where she operated until her retirement in 1927. Hughes worked in platinotype and started the fashion of being photographed in large hats and evening dress in the style of Reynolds and Gainsborough. She specialised in the graceful posing of mother and child groups.