Yevonde ('Junior and the Photographer')

1 portrait of Yevonde

© Mary Evans Picture Library

2 Likes voting
is closed

Thanks for Liking

Please Like other favourites!
If they inspire you please support our work.

Make a donation

Yevonde ('Junior and the Photographer')

by Yevonde
semi-matte bromide print on card mount, 5 December 1949
10 3/8 in. x 11 1/4 in. (262 mm x 285 mm)
Given by Yevonde, 1971
Photographs Collection
NPG x26030

On display at The Laing Art Gallery, Newcastle-upon-Tyne

Sitterback to top

Artistback to top

Linked publicationsback to top

  • Clare Freestone, Yevonde: Life and Colour, 2023 (accompanying the exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery from 22 June to 15 October 2023), p. 32
  • Gibson, Robin, The Face in the Corner: Animal Portraits from the Collections of the National Portrait Gallery, 1998, p. 88
  • Robin Gibson, Pets in Portraits, 2015, p. 128 Read entry

    Although still a little-known name, Madame Yevonde (she was born Yevonde Cumbers) was one of the most colourful and original figures in British photography. Her pioneering work with colour photography in the 1930s was extremely influential and has scarcely been equalled since. This entertaining self-portrait is typical of her always inventive approach to the medium and surely indicative of the importance cats played in her life. She had been happily married to a minor playwright called Edgar Middleton and was devastated by his premature death in 1939. Although not mentioned at all in her entertaining biography, In Camera (1940), it was her cats who seem increasingly to have filled the void left by his death.

    The cats had the free run of her studio. Whiskey wormed his way into several of her society portraits in the 1930s, and it was probably he who managed to escape with her to safety seconds before a direct hit on her Berkely Square studio during the Blitz. Junior also appears in other photographs. On the reverse of the mount, Mme Yevonde has inscribed: ‘JUNIOR – Winner of the 1958 Good Conduct Prize offered by the Cats Protection League for the most distinguished cat. He was aged 18 when he disappeared. He is wearing a very early photograph of the photographer.’ Modest as always, the photograph in question cannot in fact have been taken much before 1945.

Portrait setback to top

Subjects & Themesback to top

Events of 1949back to top

Current affairs

Following the Republic of Ireland Act in 1948, the Irish Free State becomes the Republic of Ireland and leaves the Commonwealth. The functions previously given to the King were handed to the President of Ireland.
The Second Parliament Act diminishes the power of the House of Lords, reducing their authority to delay bills from two years to one.

Art and science

George Orwell publishes his dystopian novel, 1984. The book imagines a future where totalitarian governments rule; their power based on continual war abroad, and overwhelming propaganda and surveillance at home. With 'Big Brother' keeping a constant check on the citizens' actions and thoughts, the individual loses the faculties of free will and independent thought.

International

The People's Republic of China is created after the Communist Party wins the Civil War. China became a communist country under Mao Zedong.
Cold War tensions increase as Germany is split into the democratic Federal Republic of Germany in the west (a union of the post-war British, French and American sectors), and the communist German Democratic Republic, in the east.

Comments back to top

We are currently unable to accept new comments, but any past comments are available to read below.

If you need information from us, please use our Archive enquiry service . Please note that we cannot provide valuations. You can buy a print or greeting card of most illustrated portraits. Select the portrait of interest to you, then look out for a Buy a Print button. Prices start at around £6 for unframed prints, £16 for framed prints. If you wish to license an image, select the portrait of interest to you, then look out for a Use this image button, or contact our Rights and Images service. We digitise over 8,000 portraits a year and we cannot guarantee being able to digitise images that are not already scheduled.