Madame Yevonde signed society portrait photograph

1930, signed in pencil by Yevonde

Author

Publisher

Printing Details

This is a society portrait photograph, c1930, by Yevonde Middleton, known professionally as Madame Yevonde, signed in pencil. Middleton was born in 1893 and by 1914 had been given a three-year apprenticeship with the portrait photographer Lallie Charles. At the age of 21 Yevonde set up her own studio at 92 Victoria Street, London, and her work was featuring in Tatler and The Sketch. She moved to bigger premises at 100 Victoria Street (where this photograph was taken), where she developed a more creative, style. Her subjects were often pictured looking away from the camera rather than the more traditional face-on.

The photograph and mount measures approximately 31 × 23.5cm, the image itself being 24 × 18cm. It follows the usual design of the photo being mounted on tissue, then on a piece of black card, and finally on some textured card. It is not framed or glazed.

The sitter is Evelyn Johnson (b.1908), daughter of Col. Sir Robert A Johnson, soldier and Deputy Master of the Royal Mint. She married a Naval officer, Julian Liddell, in 1930 at St. Margarets, Westminster.

Condition

The photograph is in good condition, the tissue paper has some spotted foxing and there is a little light bumping to the card's edges. Yevonde's stamp and handwritten reference number to the rear.

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