Lot of two (2) vintage original black-and-white chlorobromide prints signed by the highly acclaimed British photographer, DOROTHY WILDING. This lot includes two original prints by the photographer which were affixed to either side of a piece of 10.75 x 14 in. buff-colored cardstock with an original photographer's signature in pencil beneath each one.

The first of two original prints depicted was taken on 15 February, 1942 and features the beloved actress, singer, and dancer Gertrude Lawrence with her husband, Robert Stoddard Aldrich, an acclaimed theatrical producer and lieutenant-commander USNR, as they hold a small dog. The print itself measures approximately 6.75 x 9.25 in. and Miss Wilding has placed her actual signature in pencil beneath the print. Another image taken during this same sitting is in the collection of the National Portrait Gallery In London.

Mounted to the other side is a beautiful photograph of Gertrude Lawrence that was also taken in 1942 and depicts her wearing a very smart outfit with white gloves and a black purse placed off to the side. This print measures approximately 6.5 x 9.5 in. and Miss Wilding has placed her actual signature in pencil beneath this print as well. Both prints and the piece of cardstock are in very fine condition. Silent Cinema Inc. (the seller here) guarantees that both prints are actual vintage original chlorobromide prints by Dorothy Wilding herself which feature her actual signature (2).

Gertrude Lawrence (4 July 1898 – 6 September 1952) was an English actress, singer, dancer and musical comedy performer known for her stage appearances in the West End of London and on Broadway in New York. She entertained the allied troops in Europe as part of ENSA during World War II.


Richard Aldrich (August 17, 1902 – March 31, 1986) was an American theatre producer, theatre manager, director, and diplomat. He was an officer with the United States Navy reserves during World War II and the Korean War, and a diplomat with the United States Foreign Operations Administration and International Cooperation Administration. He produced more than thirty plays on Broadway from 1933 through 1956, and also operated three summer theaters in Massachusetts. He was married to actress Gertrude Lawrence and their marriage was memorialized in his book, Gertrude Lawrence as Mrs. A: An Intimate Biography of a Great Star (1955) and the Academy Award-nominated biographical musical film, Star! (1968).

 

Dorothy Frances Edith Wilding (10 January 1893 – 9 February 1976) was an English professional portrait photographer from Gloucester, who established successful studios in both London and New York. She is known for her portraits of the British Royal Family, some of which were used to illustrate postage stamps, and in particular for her studies of actors and celebrities which fused glamour with modernist elegance. The historian Val Williams noted Wilding's combination of business savvy and deep understanding of aesthetic impact: 'nobody knew better than Dorothy Wilding the power of the photograph to create or destroy the desired image."

 

Wilding wanted to become an actress or artist, but these careers were not encouraged by her uncle, in whose family she lived, so she chose instead photography, which she started to learn from the age of sixteen. Wilding obtained studio experience with the American portraitist Marian Nielson, before working as a re-toucher for Richard Speight in New Bond Street; in 1914, she opened her first studio. By 1929, Wilding had already moved studio a few times and in her Bond Street studio attracted theatrical stars and shot her first British Royal Family portrait of the 26-year-old Prince George (later Duke of Kent) in 1928. Six years later, Wilding was selected to take the official engagement photographs of Prince George before his marriage to Princess Marina of Greece. In 1935, a sitting booked for a Mrs Simpson on a Friday found Wilding away from the studio. Instead, her leading deputy camera operator, Maryon Parham, took photographs of Wallis Simpson, the future Duchess of Windsor, who was accompanied to the studio by Edward, Prince of Wales at a time when the relationship was not mentioned in the British press. A hand-coloured image from this session would later appear on the cover of Time magazine, marking Wallis as "Woman of the Year." 

 

Wilding opened a second studio in New York City on 56th Street in 1937. The studio was designed in collaboration with her architect husband, Rufus Leighton-Pearce. A further important series of Royal Sittings were also taken when Wilding was based in America. These were eventually followed by the famous Wilding portrait of the newly ascended Elizabeth II that was used for a series of definitive postage stamps of Great Britain used between 1952 and 1967, and a series of Canadian stamps in use from 1954 to 1962. A previous portrait sitting of Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon, wife of George VI, had turned into a double portrait of the royal couple and was adapted for the 1937 Coronation issue stamp. That portrait led to her being the first woman awarded a Royal Warrant to be the official photographer to a King and Queen at their coronation.

 

An autobiography, In Pursuit of Perfection, was published in 1958.