The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1883-08-25
QUEENS OF THE CAMERA.
The portraits of actresses have becor

Independent to have anything to do wit
the stage have mainly gone to the wal
while those who have catered to tn
stage have invariably made fortune,
Among these are Sarony, Mora, Andel
son and Dana. The latter has bee
comparatively recently established, an
he has done well by stage portraiture,
Sarony is, however, the most eminen
and the best known man in his line il
New York. To the merely mechanical
part of photography he unites higl
artistic IDEAL and his work in water
color, oil and charcoal is of high de
gree.
The average man has little idea t
what an enormous extent the photo
graph business is carried For some
years American photographs have been
ahead Of any others. This is due in
great part to the iineness of our at.
mosphere. and it is why foreign actres.
SEES who come here usually adopt their
photographs taken here in preference
70 all Others
Years ago, when Quincy and Freder-
icks were the crack photographers of
New York, ladies and gentlemen of the
stage used to pay for their photographs
At what is known rs professional
rates" But that is all changed now.
In some unusual cases the photographer
pays in place of being paid, and in spite
Of stiff prices at times, he often makes
large sums of money by this class of
custom.
When Patti arrived here two seasons
ago there was an excited competition
among the principal photographers to
get her to sit. Sarony made the largest
bid :5.000-for two sittings of an hour
each. He paid the money down to her
agent, M. Franchi, and Patti sat, being
taken in some twenty or twenty-five
positions. OF all the negatives taken
only one suited the prma donna Sa-
rony desired to use several of the others
which he considered good, but she was
obduratc. "The fact is, said Sarony,
that Patti is no longer rs young rs she
was, but she wants to look as well in
herpictures. In painting or engravings
it is quite possible to make ideal pic
lures, but photographers will reproduce
life as it is. :" The result was, at any
rate, that Patti strictly confined him to
the one negative. 1t is the side face
with the black bonnet, now quite IA
miIiar in programmes and engravings. |
He cndeavored to get her to sit again, |
but she always alleged previous engage
ments and the single photograph | have
named cost Sarony the $4,000. This |
speculation did not pay him, and the
most remarkable part of it was the de-
mand was greater for Nicolni's photo
graphs than for PATHS and it is the
most difficult thing in the world to get
the tenor to sit He prefers to rest on
his pictures of twenty years ago and APP
pear forever young.
The photographers must take the
good with the bad, like any other trades
man. Sarony also ovcr-bid the rest of
his confreres for the Langtry. She ma
turally was great prize. Everybody
was anxious to see II faithful portrait
OF this much-talked-of lady. The price
paid her was $4,000, and she was taken
ia some twenty positions, all of which
suited her. She made no objection to
any Of them. Thousands upon thous-
dndswere turned out of the work-rooms
OF the lucky photographer, and it is not
too much to say that the sale represent
sd the net profit of $4,000 over and
above all expenses They are still sell
ing rapidly, and have probably found
place in hundreds Of private collec-
tons.
There is one woman, who, for time
al least outsold even Langtry an in
signiil"ant-Iooking woman enough, with
40 talent to speak of aud II marvellous
aptitude Of looking well pictured in any $
position. This was the great photo
graph actress, Maudc Branscombe. - .
of thousands have seen her
who barely heard of her
and never witnessed her acting. Ii is !
estimated that the enormous number Of
100000 of her pictures have been sold 4
IN the past six years. While photo. /
graphcrs everywhere were making for :
tunes out of her Singularly attractive I
Photographic beauty, She was, it is said,
poor, and at times next door to actual I
want. Then the idea struck her huS- q
band, Mr.. Evcrard Stuart, to turn her y
popularity To- account. aud since then h
ne has received II regular oNaltv ON the q
sale OF her pictures She is now IN Eng :
land, and has been for some time, but
her portraits continue 10 sell about rs f
we'll as ever !,
Mrs Alice Dunning ling,rd is u f,
handsome woman whose photograph al
ways commanded ready sale Her \
favors seem to have been c
confined to San Francisco principally. n
She poses very beautifully and the cam h
era tlatters her. There are some la +
dies OF the stage, on the other hand who,
though goodlooking, never appear to
be done justice to in their photographs.
VI all the pictures the willowy Sara
Jewett has had takcll-and she is fond e
1i photograph galleries only one ever W
lid her justice. 1t was n side face and j
makes her look womanly and iutellec- Z Z
-ual-a rare combination. Miss Cogh-
Ian is taken no longer. but she used to r.
be the favorite Of the photographer. 49, II
Mrs. Agnes Booth thinks fair woman IL
does not make very good picture, i
while Miss Emil Leslie, recent acaui- a
'ition to the Madison Square Theatre. d
takes very well. Miss Alta Norman a
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