Alexander Bassano: Victorian Photographer
Past display archive
25 March - 10 November 2013
Room 28: case display
Free
Alexander Bassano
by Alexander Bassano
1880s
NPG x96049
‘… it is exactly the sort of studio we should all of us like to have.’
– Henry Baden Pritchard, 1882
This display commemorates the centenary of the death of Alexander Bassano (1829–1913) who established one of the most important photographic portrait studios of the Victorian era. His sitters included royalty, aristocracy, politicians, and leading names from the military, sciences and arts.
Bassano opened his first studio in London during the early 1850s and was situated at 122 Regent Street from 1859. Further premises were temporarily added to accommodate his growing clientele before his grand studio at 25 Old Bond Street opened in 1877, where he remained. It was spread over three floors with several reception rooms and dressing rooms, a broad staircase and two main day-lit studios equipped with good-quality furniture and props. When Bassano arrived at his studio in the morning, he usually found clients already waiting, and he often worked without a break until the sun set.
After Bassano retired in 1901, the studio continued until the 1980s and retained its founder’s name. Most of the studio’s negatives, dating from the 1870s to the 1970s, are now held at the National Portrait Gallery.
Read Bassano: The Man Himself on the Gallery’s Blog,
by Constantia Nicolaides, Photographs Cataloguer
© National Portrait Gallery, London
Related resources
Related portraits
- Edward Askew Sothern as Lord Dundreary in 'Our American Cousin' (NPG Ax25093)
- King Edward VII (NPG x95847)
- Prince Arthur, 1st Duke of Connaught and Strathearn as a fairy prince (NPG x26135)
- The children of King Edward VII (NPG x137237)
- Alexander Bassano (NPG x96049)
- Queen Alexandra (NPG x137236)
- Cetshwayo ka Mpande (NPG x134549)
- Thomas Henry Huxley (NPG x11992)
- Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury (NPG x27751)
- Wilma Norman-Neruda (NPG x136473)
- Belle Bilton (NPG x958)
- Cecil John Rhodes (NPG x29184)
- Lord Randolph Churchill (NPG x134496)
- Priscilla Cecilia (née Moore), Countess Annesley (NPG x3820)
- The Bassano family (NPG x150676)
- Herbert Kitchener, 1st Earl Kitchener (NPG x127982)
- Queen Victoria (NPG x127989)
- Maude ('Maudie') Francis (Francesca Charlotte Schmidt) (NPG x137158)
- Marie George (NPG x128427)
- Belle Bilton; Mary Ansell (NPG Ax136801)
- The staff of Bassano Ltd (NPG x156438)
Related sitters
- Prince Albert Victor, Duke of Clarence and Avondale
- Queen Alexandra
- Priscilla Cecilia (née Moore), Countess Annesley
- Mary Ansell
- Prince Arthur, 1st Duke of Connaught and Strathearn
- Adelaide Fanny Louise Barber (née Bassano)
- Ludwig George Barber
- Adelaide Rose Ainslie Bassano (née Lancaster)
- Alexander Bassano
- Cetshwayo ka Mpande
- Lord Randolph Henry Spencer Churchill
- Isabel Maude Penrice ('Belle') Le-Poer-Trench (née Bilton), Countess of Clancarty
- King Edward VII
- Maude ('Maudie') Francis (Francesca Charlotte Schmidt)
- King George V
- Marie George
- Hermione Una Adelaide Camilla Gunton-Turner (née Serjeant)
- Sybil Ainslie Ida Hanson (née Serjeant)
- Thomas Henry Huxley
- Horatio Herbert Kitchener, 1st Earl Kitchener of Khartoum
- Princess Louise, Duchess of Fife
- Maud, Queen of Norway
- Wilma Norman-Neruda (née Wilhelmine Maria Franziska Neruda, later Lady Hallé)
- Cecil John Rhodes
- Robert Arthur Talbot Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury
- Camilla Teresa ('Lily') Serjeant (née Bassano)
- Edward Askew Sothern
- Queen Victoria
- Princess Victoria of Wales