This photograph shows the celebrated comedian and singer, the diminutive Frederick Robson (1821-1864) as the Italian opera singer Adelaide Ristori playing Medea, which she had done in Paris in 1856 in Ernst Legouvé's 3-act opera Medea.

Robson (1821-1864) who was born in Margate Thomas Brownhill, became a star of London's Olympic Theatre and eventually one of its managers. He had a great talent for burlesque, or performances that parodied the originals, and he was a hit in the burlesque Medea, or, Best of Mothers with a Brute of a Husband written by Robert Brough, which opened at the Olympic Theatre on 14 July 1856. Charles Dickens noted in one of his letters that in it Robson performed: 'a frantic song and dagger dance, about 10 minutes long altogether, which has more passion in it than Ristori could express in 50 years.'

Photography was a novel and exciting development in Victorian days. Most actors and actresses had studio photographs taken, in everyday dress or theatrical costume, for ‘cartes de visite’, and later ‘cabinet cards’. Both were albumen prints made from glass negatives, attached to stiff card backing printed with the photographer’s name.

‘Cartes de visite’, the size of formal visiting cards, were patented in 1854 and produced in their millions during the 1860s when it became fashionable to collect them. Their subjects included scenic views, tourist attractions and works of art, as well as portraits. They were superseded in the late 1870s by the larger and sturdier ‘cabinet cards’ whose popularity waned in turn during the 1890s in favour of postcards and studio portraits.

This photograph comes from a large collection of ‘cartes de visite’ and ‘cabinet cards’ removed from their backings and mounted in albums by Guy Tristram Little (d.1953) who bequeathed them to the V&A. A collector of greetings cards, games and photographs, Guy Little was a partner in the legal firm Messrs Milles Jennings White & Foster, and the solicitor and executor of Mrs. Gabrielle Enthoven, whose theatrical collection formed the basis of the Theatre Collections at the V&A.