& about Cecil Beaton

Princess Alice
4 July 1861

this carte de visite is sited in Cecil Beaton , Garner & Mellor


CAMILLE SILVY*
Preeminent carte de visite portrait photographer of the1860's

"Silvy's rich chiaroscuro full-length portraits emphasized the texture and detail of dress and used painted backdrops to establish the status of his subjects. He created an aristocratic iconography which evidently appealed to Beaton, who preserved examples of Silvy's work in his own scrap-albums."

(from Phillippe Garner & David Alan Mellor Cecil Beaton Photographs 1920-1970.)

*carte de visite from my collection