Getty Museum

[Man and woman in a sitting room]

Date

1880s

Medium

Albumen silver print with brown ink and wash

Culture

British

Department

Photographs

Institution

Getty Museum

A young aristocratic British woman’s lessons and activities revolved around the important mission of finding a well-suited husband of high social status. Photocollage albums served as a portfolio of sorts that an eligible woman could share with a suitor. Such an album also facilitated flirtation and courting in that it offered a young woman and her suitor an excuse to sit close to each other on the sofa as they turned the pages of the album. This page by an anonymous photocollagist portrays a woman standing at the threshold about to greet a man we might imagine to be her gentleman caller. Two books—perhaps books of poetry or smaller photo albums—wait at the foot of the settee in which he sits. At times, the Victorian collagists incorporated photographic elements beyond just the figures. The plant stand, bear rug, settee, and books were extracted—along with the man—from a single photograph. The setting, drawn in ink and wash, brings the various photographic elements together into one unified scene. Carolyn Peter, J. Paul Getty Museum, Department of Photographs 2021 For more information about this album see the extended essay.

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