Portrait of an Unidentified Woman

This is a studio portrait of an unidentified woman by Lafayette studios.

In the late 19th century, a Dubliner called James Stack Lauder changed his surname and the name of the family photo studio to Lafayette. The rebranding was auspicious, and Lafayette Studio became the portrait studio of choice for the Irish aristocracy.

In the 1880s, James Lafayette was named ‘Her Majesty’s Photographer in Dublin’, and the business went international with several studios opening up in England, including on London’s fashionable Bond Street. This location welcomed visiting Indian dignitaries, like Maharaja Sayaji Rao Gaekwad III of Baroda, Jitendra Narayan Bhup Bahadur of Cooch Behar and Lady Meherbai D Tata, wife of Bombay industrialist Dorabji Tata. James Lafayette was favoured among the image-conscious elite for his retouching skills.