117
London work, mixed in with the best from Sydney, was
to win an important prize in his fi rst year there.
In London over the next two decades, Barnett con-
tinued to photograph high-society, writers, artists and
musicians. The French sculptor, Auguste Rodin, sat for
him in 1903, the great opera singer, Dame Nellie Melba,
the year before.
During the First World War, Barnett changed towards
a more modern style. In 1920, he sold his London studio,
moving to France. In Dieppe, he put on an exhibition of
his latest work—of working men around the town. There
he also photographed the English post-impressionist,
Walter Sickert and the ageing French composer, Camille
Saint-Saens. He died at Nice in the south of France on
16th January 1934.
Roger Neill
See Also: Australia.
Biography
Born in Melbourne, Australia, on 25th January 1862,
Walter Barnett became Australia’s fi rst world-class
portrait photographer. His Falk Studios was established
in Sydney in 1885 and in Melbourne ten years later. In
Australia, the main focus of his business was stars of
the stage—local and imported—together with his circle
of artist friends, politicians and high-society. Through
Barnett, the fi rst movie fi lm was shot and developed in
Australia. Moving to London in 1897, he established a
studio in Knightsbridge, operated under his own name,
which attracted celebrities of all kinds—royalty, artis-
tic, governmental etc. He died at Nice, France, on 6th
January 1934.
Further Reading
Australasian Photographic Review, July 1894, 15, 18.
British Journal of Photography, 26th January 1934, 43–55.
Cato, Jack, I can Take it: The Autobiography of a Photographer,
Melbourne, Georgian House, 1947.
Cato, Jack, The Story of the Camera in Australia, Melbourne,
Georgian House, 1955.
Neill, Roger, Legends: the Art of Walter Barnett, Canberra, Na-
tional Portrait Gallery, 2001 (catalogue).
Neill, Roger, Walter Barnett and his Artistic Circle, Sydney,
Antiques and Art in Australia, December 2000.
Photography, 22nd June 1899, 407–410.
Photography, Christmas, 1899, p 44.
The Bulletin, 6th June 1896.
The Photographer, 1898, p 234.
The Practical Photographer, July 1898, 188–196.
BARTHOLDI, AUGUSTE (1834–1904)
Born in the little city Colmar, the famous sculptor of the
statue of Liberty also practiced photography. He had an
interest for the new medium both as a creative image
and as a commercial image designated to document his
work. After studying in the studio of Ary Scheffer and
of the sculptors J.-F. Soitoux and A. Etex, the young
Bartholdi was commissioned in 1855 to go to Greece,
Egypt and North Africa with his friend, the painter
J.-L. Gérôme. Initiated the year before the trip to the
calotype technique, he returned with a hundred photo-
graphs which have been arousing a justifi ed interest for
several years now. With a high sense of composition,
Bartholdi recorded the picturesque aspects of Egypt:
houses, minarets, bazaars, cafés, shops and landscapes.
He only reserved one-fi fth of his production for great
monuments. The graphism of forms and the harmony of
strong contrasts of light and shape reveal his personal
way of seeing. Their aesthetic power is obvious even
though the technique hesitates a bit. After a trip to Ye-
men in 1856, Bartholdi abandoned this practice, but kept
on using photography, as other artists, as an advertising
support and document of his sculptural work.
Laure BoyerBASSANO, ALEXANDER (1829–1913)
Between 1870 and 1900, Alexander Bassano ran one
of the most successful London High Society photo-
graphic studios. Bassano enjoyed a fashionable status
comparable to that enjoyed by Camille Silvy and John
Jabez Edwin Mayall during the 1860s. His pictures
were frequently sold as celebrity photographs or
reproduced by the illustrated press. Bassano’s most
famous photograph is undoubtedly the portrait of Lord
Kitchener used for the iconic World War One poster
“Your Country Needs You.” Many other distinguished
sitters also patronised the studio, ranging from Queen
Victoria and Lillie Langtry to Cecil Rhodes and the
Zulu King Cetewayo.
Alessandro Bassano was born in 1829 and was a
direct descendant of Duc de Bassano, secretary to Na-
poleon. In April 1850, he married an Englishwoman,
Adelaide Lancaster, by whom he had three children, a
son and two daughters. By 1889, he had anglicised his
fi rst name to Alexander.
Bassano spent his early days receiving artistic train-
ing in the studio of Augustus Egg, and from the water
colourist and scene painter, William Beverley. The re-
ception room at his Old Bond Street Studio contained
busts of Duke of Connaught and Prince Imperial that had
been sculpted by Bassano. His fi rst studio was at 122 Re-
gent St West (1862–76), and subsequent premises were
at 72 Piccadilly West (1870–81); 25 Old Bond Street
West (1878–03); 182 Oxford Street (1889); 42 Pall Mall
(1891–92); 18 Alphoa Road, London (1892–96).
The Prince of Wales reputedly started off Bassano’s
run of fashionable sitters when he visited Regent Street
studio. Bassano later wrote that when he received the