The Studio Backdrop, Part Two

I never tire of looking at the painted backdrops in studio portraits. It fascinates me to see the ways people wanted to be depicted. I've posted on studio backdrops before; here is another set demonstrating the variety of painted backdrops seen throughout the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

State Library of Queensland

A young bride with a stained glass window backdrop, ca. 1927. Source

Nasjonalbiblioteket / National Library of Norway

Prince Carl (later Haakon VII) of Norway with a coastal backdrop, 1883 (the description notes this version was a rephotographed copy made in 1906, hence the date in the lower right corner). Source

Fylkesarkivet i Sogn og Fjordane

Two women with some kind of tropical Moorish conservatory backdrop, ca. 1856-1900 (tintype). Source

"Outside" in the "Snow"

Having your photograph taken in a nineteenth century studio didn't necessarily mean you had to look like you were standing in a studio (at least, with a bit of imagination). Usually this was accomplished by backdrops, sometimes with the addition of props. Sometimes a bit of dress-up, too. 

For a while Montreal photographer William Notman (whose photographs of people "tobogganing" we've already seen) went one further. Notman was well-known for his composite photographs, where the figures from hundreds of individual photographs were carefully cut out and pasted onto a painted backdrop to create a group picture, which was then re-photographed to create the final product. However, the composite model wasn't restricted to group. A figure or two from a studio portrait could also be cut out, and pasted onto the backdrop the sitter desired. 

In very snowy Montreal, apparently a very snowy backdrop was popular. Sitters dressed up in their winter clothes, sometimes even with skates, snowshoes, or curling stones. Fake snow for clothing was also an option. 

Musee McCord Museum

Messrs Crake, 1876. Source

Musee McCord Museum

Mrs. Davidson, 1876. Source

Musee McCord Museum

J. Wilson, 1876. Source

Backdrops of the Civil War

Another journey into the backdrops used by photographer's studios, this time in a certain context. During the American Civil War, ambrotype and tintype portraits of soldiers were made in great numbers by photographers who set up temporary studios at military camps (this blog has featured quite a few). While the majority of photographers just went with the plain canvas backdrop, painted backdrops were also in common use. Backdrops depicting camp scenes--usually with a prominent American flag-- were popular, along with a variety of landscapes, from the realistic to the somewhat fanciful. It is very interesting to see the kinds of scenes these young men wanted to be placed in (or the photographer though they might want to be placed it, at least). 

Library of Congress

A Union soldier with a landscape backdrop. Source

Library of Congress

A Union soldier with a checkered terrace backdrop. Source

Library of Congress

A Union soldier with a military camp backdrop. Source

"Tobogganing"

This isn't perhaps the most suitable post for early June, but I just came across these and they are far too wonderful to wait until it snows again. 

So it's the 1860s and you live in Quebec, and since you live in Quebec you really love to toboggan. You love it so much that you really want your picture taken while doing it. However, it's the 1860s and cameras are far too slow to capture motion, as well as very cumbersome to take outdoors, especially when it's minus three hundred degrees. What do you do?

The answer, of course, is obvious. You go to the photographer William Notman in Montreal, who provides the fake slope, fake snow, and fake sleds in his studio. All you have to do is dress up in your toboggan clothes and maybe pretend to crash now and again.

Dates range from 1866-1892, with a particular surge in 1869-70. All by William Notman or his studio. 

Musee McCord Museum

Source

Musee McCord Museum

Source

Musee McCord Museum

Source

The Studio Backdrop

Studio portraits are all well and good, but isn't that blank background boring? Wouldn't it be cool if you could look like you were in a fancy house or on the beach? This, pretty much, is what people were thinking right from the start of photography (there's daguerreotypes with painted backgrounds behind the sitters). These backdrops were especially popular in studio portraits of the nineteenth century. As handheld cameras and snapshots gained in popularity the backdrop began to fall out of fashion. After the first couple decades of the twentieth century you mostly only see painted backdrops in arcade photos and photobooth shots, but some studios kept using them until the mid-century. 

George Eastman House

A woman with a fancy interior backdrop, ca. 1895. Source

National Library of Ireland

Children and a toy wagon, Waterford, Ireland, 1906. Source

Library of Congress

Helen Saunders, 1914. Source