3-052-693 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Tableaux Vivants, from Sir Walter Scott's novels, at Cromwell House, South Kensington, 1880. '1. Kenilworth, chap. xxii. 2. Kenilworth, chap. xli. 3. Woodstock, chap. iv. 4. Ivanhoe, chap. xxx. 5. Quentin Durward, chap. xv. 6. The Abbot, chap. xxxv. Drawn from photographs taken by Mr. Van der Weyde's light during the representations...A series of highly attractive entertainments, arranged by some of the most eminent artists of the day, and performed by ladies and gentlemen of social position, took place...for the benefit of charitable funds. Costume groups and scenes of dramatic action in the most popular of Scott's novels were represented upon a stage fitted up in the drawing-room to a company of about three hundred invited spectators, paying each one guinea towards the benevolent object of the performance. The exhibitions...were in aid of the Irish Distress Relief Fund...[and] the Artists' Orphan Fund, and all were entirely successful...A complete set of photographs...was obtained by means of Mr. Van der Weyde's invention of an artificial light for the purpose of photography, which is far superior to ordinary daylight. Mr. Van der Weyde is an American artist of considerable talent, whose paintings have been exhibited at our Royal Academy'. From "Illustrated London News", 1880.