RARE EXAMPLE OF RUSKIN SIGNING THE LAST LESSON PHOTOGRAPH FOR 'FORS CLAVIGERA' RUSKIN (John, 1819-1900, Writer and Critic)

Unusual Signed Albumen Print Photograph of Velázquez's "Portrait of Prince Philip Prospero " with the stamp "H. O. Miethke,Verlag" in the bottom right hand corner, directly above Ruskin's ink signature which is on the mount, the oil portrait shows the 3 year old Prince wearing a dress, standing next to a chair with his dog in it, there is a pencil annotation on the mount that it is Ruskin's autograph, 10½" x 8" in mount 11½" x 9", Vienna, no date but circa

The company Miethke & Wawra, founded in 1861 by Hugo Othmar Miethke together with Carl Josef Wawra (November 19, 1839 in Vienna - May 26, 1905 in Vienna) initially operated an antiquarian bookshop and an art publisher.
The Portrait of Prince Philip Prospero is a 1659 portrait of Philip Prospero, Prince of Asturias by Diego Velázquez. It is now in the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna.
This photograph dates from 1876, the last of four 'Lesson Photographs' which he promoted and described in 'Fors Clavigera'. See Stephen Wildman's essay, 'Our Household Catalogue of Reference': Ruskin's Lesson Photographs of 1875-76, in Valerie Purton (ed.), 'John Ruskin and Nineteenth-Century Education', Anthem Press 2018, pp.101-118. At the time it was called 'The Infanta Margaret as a Child', its true subject being identified much more recently. Ruskin insisted on adding his signature as a form of approval, but he had misgivings about photographs of works of art, stating: 'Let my readers observe that my signature to it means only that it will answer our purpose, not that it is a good print'. The photographs were obtained and distributed by William Ward, his assistant in photographic matters.
It is not known how many might have been produced but very few ever appear for sale

Item Date:  1876

Stock No:  40915