Print: "Jenny Lind" by Johnson, Fry, and Co.
1849 (Date manufactured/created)
Print portrait of Swedish soprano Jenny Lind, wearing a black or dark color dress, and seated with her hands folded in her lap, and her head slightly turned. Lind is shown wearing a black lace shoulder cape, held closed at the bosom with a large oval brooch that is a portrait miniature of a woman. The sleeves of the gown are a sheer silk chiffon, fashioned with horizontal bands of tucks every few inches. Her bodice is styled with a deep point that extends below the waist. Lind's wavy hair is parted in the center, curled at the sides of her face, then drawn to the back. Her light color eyes gaze slightly upward.
Lind was not known for her physical beauty, and so images often glamorized her appearance. This one may be more realistic than most, showing her rather broad nose, which she herself described as a "potato nose." This print is a copy or pirated version of an engraving that was dedicated to the Queen of England and produced by Lloyd Brothers and Co. As a "knock off" print, it is less rich in tone and less finely detailed. Lind's printed signature, enlarge, appears in the margin below the portrait, and beneath that, the text reads: "Likeness from an original painting." The engraving from which this appears to have been copied notes that the likeness was made from a daguerrotype photograph, not a painting (see BF 1993.001.001). The print was published by Johnson, Fry, & Co., New York. No date is given, but most likely it dates from sometime between the end of the 1840s and the early 1850s.
Jenny Lind (October 6, 1820 - November 2, 1887) was a Swedish opera singer, popularly known as The Swedish Nightingale. The exceptional quality of her voice was recognized when she was young, and she received training at the Royal Dramatic Theatre in Sweden, and the Royal Swedish Academy of Music. She reached high acclaim in Europe, and was especially popular with English audiences prior being engaged by P. T. Barnum to give a concert tour in North America in 1850-1851. Lind, previously unknown in the US, was heavily promoted by Barnum, creating an insatiable demand for concert tickets and the innumerable consumer products that were manufactured with her name or general likeness. "Lindmania" took hold of the popular imagination and continued for decades though Lind's time in America was relatively short. While in America, Lind married her accompanist, Otto Goldschmidt. The couple later settled in England and raised three children. Lind became a professor of singing at the Royal College of Music in London. She is buried at the Great Malvern Cemetery in Malvern, Worcestershire, England.
Lind was not known for her physical beauty, and so images often glamorized her appearance. This one may be more realistic than most, showing her rather broad nose, which she herself described as a "potato nose." This print is a copy or pirated version of an engraving that was dedicated to the Queen of England and produced by Lloyd Brothers and Co. As a "knock off" print, it is less rich in tone and less finely detailed. Lind's printed signature, enlarge, appears in the margin below the portrait, and beneath that, the text reads: "Likeness from an original painting." The engraving from which this appears to have been copied notes that the likeness was made from a daguerrotype photograph, not a painting (see BF 1993.001.001). The print was published by Johnson, Fry, & Co., New York. No date is given, but most likely it dates from sometime between the end of the 1840s and the early 1850s.
Jenny Lind (October 6, 1820 - November 2, 1887) was a Swedish opera singer, popularly known as The Swedish Nightingale. The exceptional quality of her voice was recognized when she was young, and she received training at the Royal Dramatic Theatre in Sweden, and the Royal Swedish Academy of Music. She reached high acclaim in Europe, and was especially popular with English audiences prior being engaged by P. T. Barnum to give a concert tour in North America in 1850-1851. Lind, previously unknown in the US, was heavily promoted by Barnum, creating an insatiable demand for concert tickets and the innumerable consumer products that were manufactured with her name or general likeness. "Lindmania" took hold of the popular imagination and continued for decades though Lind's time in America was relatively short. While in America, Lind married her accompanist, Otto Goldschmidt. The couple later settled in England and raised three children. Lind became a professor of singing at the Royal College of Music in London. She is buried at the Great Malvern Cemetery in Malvern, Worcestershire, England.
T 2016.049.001