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Adelina Patti as Leonora in 'Le Trouvère'

17 of 56 portraits of Adelina Patti

© National Portrait Gallery, London

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Adelina Patti as Leonora in 'Le Trouvère'

by Camille Silvy
albumen carte-de-visite, circa 1863
3 3/8 in. x 2 1/4 in. (86 mm x 57 mm)
acquired Clive Holland, 1959
Photographs Collection
NPG x21724

Sitterback to top

  • Adelina Patti (1843-1919), Singer; sister of Carlotta Patti. Sitter associated with 56 portraits.

Artistback to top

  • Camille Silvy (1834-1910), Photographer. Artist associated with 13465 portraits, Sitter in 24 portraits.

Related worksback to top

  • NPG Ax59127: Adelina Patti in costume for six different roles (includes the portrait)

Linked publicationsback to top

  • Rogers, Malcolm, Camera Portraits, 1989 (accompanying the exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery from 20 October 1989 - 21 January 1990), p. 61 Read entry

    The Italian opera singer Patti, the last of the line of great coloratura sopranos, made her London debut on 14 May 1861 at the Royal Italian Opera, Covent Garden as Amina in Bellini's La Sonnambula, and from that time, as Lucia (x12677), Violetta (?x12679), Zerlina, Martha (x12680), Leonora (x21724) in II Trovatore, and above all as Rosina (Ax25072) in The Barber of Seville, she delighted audiences throughout Europe and in North and South America. Her public career lasted nearly sixty years, and is virtually without parallel.

    The French aristocrat Silvy came to London at about the same time as Patti, and rapidly established himself as one of the most fashionable of portrait photographers, with a studio at 38 Porchester Terrace, noted for its elegant furnishings and range of elaborate painted back-drops. Several of these are seen in his photographs of Patti, taken, no doubt with an eye to publicity, shortly after her sensational debut, and illustrating the range of her roles, and her considerable charm.

    In addition to many individual prints by Silvy, the Gallery also owns the photographer's Day Books, which contain some 10,000 prints, and which constitute a unique record of London society of the day.

Placesback to top

Events of 1863back to top

Current affairs

The opening of the world's first underground railway, with the Metropolitan Railway running trains between Bishop's Street, Padington and Farringdon. Work had begun in 1860, using the 'cut-and-cover' method of construction. The Metropolitan line inspired the construction of other underground railways - the Parisian 'Metro' took its name from the line.
The Football Association is founded.

Art and science

Julia Margaret Cameron takes up photography, taking portraits of some of the most celebrated figures of the day, with her romantic style capturing the sense of nostalgia and longing that characterised the age.
Kingsley's Water Babies; A Fairy Tale for Children is published, the hugely popular tale of drowned chimney sweep Tom's moral education in the river world of the water babies. It inspired the 1978 film starring James Mason.

International

At an international conference, the Geneva Public Welfare Society calls on the sixteen nations present to form voluntary units to help the wartime wounded. The society, comprised of five Swiss citizens and led by Henri Dunant, who had been deeply affected by the casualties he had witnessed at the Battle of Solferino, became the National Red Cross Societies, adopting the emblem of a red cross on white background.

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