BARRAUD, Herbert Rose (1845-1896)

Men and Women of the Day: A Picture Gallery of Contemporary Portraiture

London: Richard Bentley and Son, 1888-1893. 6 volumes, folio. (14 x 10 1/2 inches). 216 woodburytype photographs on cards. A few with minor chips at board edges of cards. (A seventh volume was published in 1894).

Contemporary morocco-backed cloth boards

Provenance: Peabody Institute (bookplate, inked stamp on titles and versos of photographs)

A noted photographically illustrated work of portraiture and biography.

Barraud was born in London to a family of artists. His maternal grandfather, Thomas Hull, was a miniature painter while his father Henry and his uncles, William and Edward Barraud were talented animal painters. Herbert's brother was Francis James Barraud, an artist celebrated for having created "His Master's Voice," a painting used in advertising by the early HMV gramophone records. Barraud was among the most fashionable portrait photographers of the Victorian era. He operated a studio at 263 Oxford Street from 1882 to 1892 and had a branch at 92 Bold Street in Liverpool serving gentlemen and ladies in the Northwest. He advertised his studios as being accessible "by a lift constructed on the most approved patents which will be found a great advantage to sitters as no stairs have to be ascended." This suggests that Barraud was able to cater to a wide range of subjects of different ages. Barraud was also known for taking photographs of actors and actresses in everyday dress or theatrical costume, for cartes de visite, and, later, cabinet cards. Barraud's images were Woodburytypes, then a newly developed process which lent itself admirably to portraiture, being able to render tones accurately. Barraud's portraits were noted for their ability to capture the essence of the sitters and their characters with a flattering sense of familiarity. John Ruskin thought that Barraud's photographs were "the first done of [him] that expressed what good character there was in [him] for [his] work." The English critic was particularly amused by the one Barraud took of him standing against a tree, dated to 1886, since it reminded him of the poses often adopted by 'young ladies or professional beauties' in studio photographs. Similarly, photographs Barraud took of Charles Darwin are described as having an intimacy and rapport which the portraits done by other photographers lacked. These volumes are photographically illustrated biographies, which chronicle the lives of literary, social and artistic figures in the last decade of the nineteenth century. The volumes include portraits of Robert Browning, Lady Churchill, Arthur Conan Doyle, Henry Irving, Lord Tennyson, Sir Richard Owen, John Ruskin, Adalina Patti, George Du Maurier, J. M. Barrie, H. M. Stanley, W. S. Gilbert, and other writers, actors, politicians, scientists, aristocrats and notables of the day. The final volume includes portraits by other photographers. The biographies are edited by Charles Ellington.

Stephen, Leslie, ed. (1885). "Barraud, Henry," ODNB. "The Private Secretary," object record, The Victoria and Albert Museum. "Herbert Barraud," collection record, The National Portrait Gallery, London; "3.21 Herbert Rose Barraud, photos," in Portraits of Charles Darwin: a catalogue, Cambridge University Darwin Correspondence Project.

Item #35108

Price: $8,500.00