Up And Down Bold Street With Arthur Medrington
Arthur Stanhope Medrington opened an artist studio at 128 Bold Street in Liverpool in the late 1870s. Like so many jobbing artists of the time, his work was largely confined to providing relatively cheap portraits of Victorian middle class families – the type of work and the type of market that the new invention of photography was ideally suited for. By the mid 1880s his work was primarily as a photographer and he opened up a new studio (the Grand Electric or Daylight Studio) at the other end of Bold Street at No. 29. He was later joined in business by his younger brother, Charles Edward, and they continued in business well into the twentieth century.
This particular Carte-de-Visite from my collection must date from the 1880s when Arthur was still styling himself as an “Art Photographer and Portrait Painter” and his studio is clearly seen on the reverse of the card as being at 29, Bold Street. Where the address on the front of the card – 20 Bold Street – comes from, heavens only knows, perhaps as a result of an annoying printing error. To add to the confusion, the reverse of the card also suggests that he was previously at 33, Bold Street: quite clearly Arthur Medrington was up and down Bold Street like the adjustable legs of a tripod!
It's very strange that I have yet to encounter an actual painted portrait by an early photographer. There is an endless number of cabinet cards on the market, but never any non-photo pictures made by one of these self-styled art photographers. What I'd like to know is whether they used traditional artist techniques or instead used the camera lens image to trace on paper the portrait likeness.
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