Lady Filmer in her Drawing Room
Medium
Albumen prints, collage and watercolor
Dimensions
Image: 22.5 × 28.2 cm (8 7/8 × 11 1/8 in.); Mount: 36.9 × 42.8 cm (14 1/2 × 16 13/16 in.)
Classification
albumen print from collodion negative
Department
Photography and Media
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
198126
Rights
Public Domain
About this artwork
In Victorian England, aristocratic women produced new meanings for photographs by cutting them up and pasting them into elaborate watercolor scenes. Lady Filmer employed photocollage to bolster her position in society. Here she placed herself at the heart of a gathering of fashionably attired friends and family, making a photocollage album—that is, performing the very activity that produced this work. The composition revolves around Filmer’s most important guest: Albert Edward, the Prince of Wal...