From roughly 1860 to 1920 [1] [2] painted photography backdrops were a standard feature of early photography studios. Generally of rustic or quasi-classical design, but sometimes presenting a bourgeoisie trompe-l'œil, [3] they eventually fell out of fashion with the advent of the Brownie and Kodak cameras which brought photography to the masses with concurrent changes to public sensibility. Inasmuch as they were produced for six decades by local artisans, they can provide important clues to the provenance of old family photographs for genealogical research, [4] [5] [6] and their staged influence lives on in "old-timey" photography sets. [7] [8] Furthermore, they are of some interest to specialized collectors of the history of photography. [9]
Illinois, 1862
Sara Forbes Bonetta photographed by Camille Silvy, Great Britain, 1862
Scotland, 1875
India, before 1877
France, 1870-1879
Berlin (now Kitchener), Ontario, Canada 1878
Frederick Douglass with his second wife Helen Pitts Douglass and her sister (standing), c. 1884
Leon Trotsky, 1888, Russia
One of the Barrison sisters, Berlin, 1903
Mignon Nevada as Ophelia in Ambroise Thomas's opera, Hamlet, c. 1910
Johannes Holzmann, 1914, Europe
Guide Alice, Victoria, Australia, c. 1900-30