Setting the Scene: Staging and Backdrops in Studio Photographs
Past display archive
22 March - 4 December 2016
Room 28: case display
Free
Fanny Josephs
by Southwell Brothers
1860s
NPG x18956
To be photographed in the nineteenth-century usually meant visiting one of many competing commercial portrait studios. Since photographing outdoors was not practical for much of the period, photographers routinely equipped their studios with props, furniture, and backdrops to make their pictures look more natural and appealing. In doing so, they often recalled the conventions of traditional painted portraiture, contributing to early debates about photography’s status as ‘art’, while foregrounding its ability to represent truth or illusion.
While some photographers posed their sitters against plain backgrounds, seated in a chair or beside a small table, others chose specific items that could tailor compositions to reflect the identity of their sitters. Fashions changed, but many studio set-ups endured, reappearing throughout the nineteenth-century. The examples in this display show the inventiveness and skill demonstrated by some of the Victorian period's most sought-after photographers.
© National Portrait Gallery, London
Related resources
Related portraits
- George Cattermole (NPG P1663)
- Oscar Wilde (NPG P25)
- Fanny Josephs (NPG x18956)
- Carlo Marochetti (NPG Ax11923)
- Mary Catherine Lygon (née Stanhope), Countess Beauchamp (NPG Ax30366)
- Victoria, Empress of Germany and Queen of Prussia (NPG Ax46797)
- Louis Philippe Marie Ferdinand Gaston d'Orléans, Prince Imperial-Consort of Brazil, Count d'Eu (NPG x134676)
- Princess Alice, Grand Duchess of Hesse (NPG x26109)
- Lord Charles Fitzroy (NPG Ax7442)
- Jenny Lind; Otto Moritz David Goldschmidt (NPG x17301)
- Lord Walter Talbot Kerr (NPG Ax7448)
- Jenny Lind; Otto Moritz David Goldschmidt (NPG x134147)
- Agnes Strickland (NPG Ax7547)
- King Edward VII (NPG x11816)
- George Belmore (George Belmore Garstin or George Benjamin Garstin) as Stephen Hargreaves in 'Aurora Floyd' (NPG x713)
- Miss M. Henderson in 'Beautiful Haidee' (NPG x18409)
- Charles John Kean (NPG x12601)
- Carlotta Leclercq as Zillah in 'The Duke's Motto' (NPG x19971)
- Mary Catherine Lygon (née Stanhope), Countess Beauchamp (NPG Ax30367)
- King Edward VII; Queen Alexandra (NPG x45212)
- King Edward VII; Queen Alexandra (NPG x197438)
- King George V (NPG x96096)
- Angela Burdett-Coutts, Baroness Burdett-Coutts (NPG x127418)
- Marion Hood (née Sarah Ann Isaac) (NPG x127442)
- Sir George Henry Lewis, 1st Bt (NPG Ax9144)
- Isabella Martin; Lallie Charles; Rita Martin (NPG x68949)
- The Studio of Elliott & Fry (interior) (NPG x100944)
Related sitters
- Queen Alexandra
- Princess Alice, Grand Duchess of Hesse
- Mary Catherine Lygon (née Stanhope), Countess Beauchamp
- George Belmore (George Belmore Garstin or George Benjamin Garstin)
- Angela Georgina Burdett-Coutts, Baroness Burdett-Coutts
- George Cattermole
- Lallie Charles (née Charlotte Elizabeth Martin)
- King Edward VII
- Lord Charles Fitzroy
- King George V
- Otto Moritz David Goldschmidt
- Miss M. Henderson
- Marion Hood (née Sarah Ann Isaac)
- Frances Adeline ('Fanny') Josephs
- Charles John Kean
- Lord Walter Talbot Kerr
- Carlotta Leclercq
- Sir George Henry Lewis, 1st Bt
- Johanna Maria ('Jenny') Lind
- Louis Philippe Marie Ferdinand Gaston d'Orléans, Prince Imperial-Consort of Brazil, Count d'Eu
- (Pietro) Carlo Giovanni Battista Marochetti, Baron Marochetti
- Rita Martin
- Agnes Strickland
- Victoria, Empress of Germany and Queen of Prussia
- Oscar Wilde