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Lady Filmer in her Drawing Room

A work made of albumen prints, collage and watercolor.
CC0 Public Domain Designation

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  • A work made of albumen prints, collage and watercolor.

Date:

1863–68

Artist:

Mary Georgiana Caroline, Lady Filmer
English, 1838-1903

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 Wales, with whom she certainly flirted and may even have had an affair. The prince is shown leaning against the table, his hat at a rakish angle and waistline trimmed flatteringly by Lady Filmer’s knife. By contrast, her husband, Sir Edmund Filmer, is shown in the lower right—near the family dog.

Status

Currently Off View

Department

Photography and Media

Artist

Mary Georgiana Caroline, Lady Filmer

Title

Lady Filmer in her Drawing Room

Place

England (Artist's nationality:)

Date  Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.

1863–1868

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.)

Credit Line

Through prior gifts of Mrs. Jack Diamond and Michael Glicker

Reference Number

2018.1

IIIF Manifest  The International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) represents a set of open standards that enables rich access to digital media from libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural institutions around the world.

Learn more.

https://api.artic.edu/api/v1/artworks/198126/manifest.json

Extended information about this artwork

Object information is a work in progress and may be updated as new research findings emerge. To help improve this record, please email . Information about image downloads and licensing is available here.

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