[Photo collage of four female portraits and a portrait of the Honorable Oliver Montagu]

about 1864–1870

Medium

Albumen silver print

Dimensions

28 × 22.6 cm

Status

In Museum Collection

Collect24 Art ID

C24-490417

This page sits in an album that intermixes pages of unaltered _cartes-de-visite_ with photocollages. Typically made by Victorian upper-class women, the photocollaged pages might include added elements as simple as a watercolor flourish in the middle of the page or a frame drawn around a mounted photograph. The photocollages however, could also be elaborate, full-paged compositions made with a variety of drawing materials and integrating photographs, found printed materials, and/or colored paper. _The Westmorland Album_ includes examples of all these options. Many of the_ cartes-de-visites_ were inserted in specially manufactured [album pages](https://www.getty.edu/art/collection/object/107NB8?altImage=36efbb41-f6b9-4582-9599-d97e40b536ce) that came with slots. Many of those pages have watercolored floral designs at the center. [Another page](https://www.getty.edu/art/collection/object/107NFR) shows a bird (obtained from a printed source) carrying a photograph in its beak. On this page, the photocollagist has drawn frames around the mounted photographs. Carolyn Peter, J. Paul Getty Museum, Department of Photographs, 2021