Maximo and Bartola

1 portrait of Maximo

© National Portrait Gallery, London

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Maximo and Bartola

by W. & D. Downey
albumen carte-de-visite, late 1870s?
3 5/8 in. x 2 1/4 in. (93 mm x 58 mm) image size
Transferred from Victoria & Albert Museum, 1980
Photographs Collection
NPG x132258

On display in Room 22 on Floor 2 at the National Portrait Gallery

Sittersback to top

  • Bartola (active 1849-1890), Exhibited as one of 'The Last of the Ancient Aztecs' or 'The Aztec Lilliputians'. Sitter in 1 portrait.
  • Maximo (active 1849-1890), Exhibited as one of 'The Last of the Ancient Aztecs' or 'The Aztec Lilliputians'. Sitter in 1 portrait.

Artistback to top

  • W. & D. Downey (active 1855-1940), Photographers. Artist or producer associated with 938 portraits.

This portraitback to top

This is a historical work of art which reflects the attitudes and viewpoints of the time in which it was made. Whilst these may differ from today's attitudes, this image is an important historical document. This image is currently being researched, further information about this image will be updated below.

Placesback to top

Subjects & Themesback to top

Events of 1877back to top

Current affairs

Trial of social activists Annie Besant and Charles Bradlaugh following their publication of a book by the American birth-control campaigner Charles Knowlton, which suggested that working class families should be able to practice birth control. Although found guilty, the case was thrown out on a technical fault.

Art and science

The Grosevenor Gallery opens, founded by Sir Coutts Lindsay, as a rival to the Royal Academy. It exhibited work by artists such as Edward Burne-Jones and Walter Crane, outside of the British mainstream, and became famous as the home of the Aesthetic movement.
The first Lawn Tennis Championship is held at Wimbledon with around 20 male competitors, witnessed by a few hundred spectators. Spencer Gore the first singles champion, wins 12 guineas.

International

The American inventor Thomas Edison invents the tin foil phonograph, combining the technologies of the telegraph and telephone. Experimenting with a stylus on a tinfoil cylinder, he recorded and played back the short message 'Mary had a little lamb'.

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