Alexander Bassano (10 May 1829 – 21 October 1913) was an English photographer who was a leading royal and high society

portrait photographer Portrait photography, or portraiture, is a type of photography aimed toward capturing the personality of a person or group of people by using effective lighting, backdrops, and poses. A portrait photograph may be artistic or clinical. Frequentl ...

Victorian London During the 19th century, London grew enormously to become a global city of immense importance. It was the List of largest cities throughout history, largest city in the world from about 1825, the world's largest port, and the heart of Financial ...

. He is known for his photo of the

Earl Kitchener Earl Kitchener, of Khartoum and of Broome in the County of Kent, was a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. It was created in 1914 for the famous officer Field Marshal Herbert Kitchener, 1st Viscount Kitchener of Khartoum. He had alread ...

in the ''

Lord Kitchener Wants You Lord Kitchener Wants You is a 1914 advertisement by Alfred Leete which was developed into a recruitment poster. It depicted Lord Kitchener, the British Secretary of State for War, above the words "WANTS YOU". Kitchener, wearing the cap of a ...

'' army recruitment poster during the

First World War World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

and his photographs of

Queen Victoria Victoria (Alexandrina Victoria; 24 May 1819 – 22 January 1901) was Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837 until Death and state funeral of Queen Victoria, her death in January 1901. Her reign of 63 year ...

Biography

Alessandro Bassano was the second-youngest child of Italian Clemente Bassano (originally a

fishmonger A fishmonger (historically fishwife for female practitioners) is someone who sells raw fish and seafood. Fishmongers can be wholesalers or retailers and are trained at selecting and purchasing, handling, gutting, boning, filleting, displaying, ...

of Cranbourne Street, later an oilman and

warehouseman A warehouseman, also known as a warehouse worker, warehouse operator, or warehouse technician, is someone who works in a warehouse, usually delivering goods for sale or storage, or, in older usage, someone who owns a warehouse and sells goods dir ...

Jermyn Street Jermyn Street is a One-way traffic, one-way street in the St James's area of the City of Westminster in London, England. It is to the south of, parallel, and adjacent to Piccadilly. Jermyn Street is known as a street for gentlemen's-clothing r ...

, London) and his English wife, Elizabeth Browne. He later anglicised his first name to Alexander. Bassano received early artistic training with artists

Augustus Egg Augustus Leopold Egg RA (2 May 1816 – 26 March 1863) was a British Victorian artist, and member of The Clique best known for his modern triptych '' Past and Present'' (1858), which depicts the breakup of a middle-class Victorian family. Biog ...

and William Beverley. He opened his first studio in 1850 in

Regent Street Regent Street is a major shopping street in the West End of London. It is named after George IV of the United Kingdom, George, the Prince Regent (later George IV) and was laid out under the direction of the architect John Nash (architect), J ...

. The studio then moved to

Piccadilly Piccadilly () is a road in the City of Westminster, London, England, to the south of Mayfair, between Hyde Park Corner in the west and Piccadilly Circus in the east. It is part of the A4 road (England), A4 road that connects central London to ...

1859–1863, to Pall Mall and then to 25

Old Bond Street Old or OLD may refer to: Places *Old, Baranya, Hungary *Old, Northamptonshire, England * Old Street station, a railway and tube station in London (station code OLD) *OLD, IATA code for Old Town Municipal Airport and Seaplane Base, Old Town, M ...

in 1877. There was also a Bassano branch studio at 132 King's Road, Brighton from 1893 to 1899. The Old Bond Street studio was decorated with carbon photographic prints and plaster busts and was large enough to accommodate an 80-foot panoramic background scene mounted on rollers, which provided a variety of outdoor scenes or court backgrounds. Bassano had taken portraits of

William Ewart Gladstone William Ewart Gladstone ( ; 29 December 1809 – 19 May 1898) was a British politican, starting as Conservative MP for Newark and later becoming the leader of the Liberal Party (UK), Liberal Party. In a career lasting over 60 years, he ...

and even monarchs such as

and

Cetshwayo kaMpande Cetshwayo kaMpande (; ; 1826 – 8 February 1884) was the king of the Zulu Kingdom from 1873 to 1884 and its Commander in Chief during the Anglo-Zulu War of 1879. His name has been transliterated as Cetywayo or Cetshwayo. Cetshwayo consistently ...

. Bassano's headshot of Lord Kitchener formed the basis of the

recruiting poster ''Your Country Needs You''. Bassano retired from work at the studio around 1903, when the premises were extensively refurbished and relaunched as Bassano Ltd, Royal Photographers. The studio moved once again in 1921, a move written about by the '' Lady's Pictorial'' at the time. The article described about a million negatives, all systematically numbered, which had to be moved from the cellars of the premises to the new location at 38 Dover Street. The company became "Bassano and Vandyk" in 1964. The following year, it incorporated

Elliott & Fry Elliott & Fry was a Victorian era, Victorian photography studio founded in 1863 by Joseph John Elliott and Clarence Edmund Fry. For a century, the firm's core business was taking and publishing photographs of the Victorian public and social, arti ...

, a photographic partnership that had been running in

Baker Street Baker Street is a street in the Marylebone district of the City of Westminster in London. It is named after builder James Baker. The area was originally high class residential, but now is mainly occupied by commercial premises. The street is ...

since 1863. In 1977, the company became Industrial Photographic. It was based at 35 Moreton Street, SW1. Over 40,000 negatives from the Bassano Studios, including some by Alexander Bassano, are held in the

National Portrait Gallery National Portrait Gallery may refer to: * National Portrait Gallery (Australia), in Canberra * National Portrait Gallery (Sweden), in Mariefred *National Portrait Gallery (United States), in Washington, D.C. *National Portrait Gallery, London ...

in London. The

Museum of London London Museum (known from 1976 to 2024 as the Museum of London) is a museum in London, covering the history of the city from prehistoric to modern times, with a particular focus on social history. The Museum of London was formed in 1976 by ama ...

holds a large number of fashion-related plates. The National Portrait Gallery held an exhibit of Bassano’s work: ''Alexander Bassano: Victorian Photographer'' in 2013, the centenary of his death.

Personal life

Bassano married Adelaide Rose Ainslie Lancaster (1825–1906) in 1850. They had a son, Clement George Alexander (1853–1899), and two daughters, Adelaide Fanny Louise (1850–1921) and Camilla Teresa ("Lily") (1859–1928). Portraits of his wife and children are held in the

in London. His sister Louisa Bassano was a noted singer and teacher.

References

Sources

* Pritchard, Michael (1994). ''A directory of London photographers 1841–1908''. Watford: PhotoResearch. .

External links

*
Photographs by the Bassano Studio
in the collection of the

National Portrait Gallery, London The National Portrait Gallery (NPG) is an art gallery in London that houses a collection of portraits of historically important and famous British people. When it opened in 1856, it was arguably the first national public gallery in the world th ...

* Portraits of his wif
Adelaide Rose Ainslie Bassano (née Lancaster)
so
Clement George Alexander
and daughter
Adelaide Fanny Louise Barber (née Bassano)Camilla Teresa ('Lily') Serjeant (née Bassano)
in the collection of the

Brighton photographers
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Bassano Alexander 1829 births 1913 deaths English people of Italian descent British portrait photographers 19th-century English photographers Photographers from London