Maude by photographer Mora from New York

Mora, Jose Maria from New York.

Photography carte-de-visite | Portrait photo of actress Maude with tangled hair by photographer Jose Maria Mora from New York, ca 1870?, 1 p.

Name: Photography carte-de-visite | Portrait photo of actress Maude with tangled hair by photographer Jose Maria Mora from New York, ca 1870?, 1 p.
SKU: F10002
Price: 80.00 EUR
Availability: InStock

Photography, Vintage albumen print. A photo of the actress Maud / Maude Branscombe with tangles in her hair by the American photographer Jose Maria Mora, 707 Broadway, New York. He was a photographer of the Rich and Famous during the Gilded age.

Mora was a young dashing Cuban refugee. Born in Cuba around 1849 to a wealthy family, he was sent to England to study painting and when the Cuban Revolution forced the rest of his family to emigrate to the States, he joined them in New York. He quickly found employment at Napoleon Sarony’s photography studio, which at the time was the most artistic and well-regarded studio in the city. In 1870 Mora opened his own studio and immediately became one of the biggest rivals to his old boss, Sarony.

In 1893, abruptly and without explanation, Mora closed his studio at 707 Broadway. Some said that he went mad trying to restore the family fortune that had been lost in the aftermath of the revolution, but even now nobody knows for certain. For about 30 years, nothing was heard from or about Mora until 1926 the New York Times informed the public that he was more or less starving in hotel Breslin (now Ace Hotel). Mora had lived there since 1911, surviving on a diet of 15 cent pies and whatever else fellow residents were generous enough to give. His padlocked room contained his only company – starving, half-dead pigeons. He surrounded himself with memories of a better time – yellowed newspapers and theater programs filled with the names of stars he had photographed decades before. Sadly, he was declared incompetent and died a few months later at St. Vincent’s Hospital, leaving $200.000 on his bank account. (Museum of the City of New York blog).

Maud Branscombe was not the greatest actress ever but was considered one of the great beauties of her day and photographers on both sides of the Atlantic strived to take her portrait. Born Clara Amelia Branscombe in Exeter in 1854, her father was the ‘Vicar Choral’ of Exeter Cathedral. Her marital history appears to have been checkered. Her first marriage was in Canada in 1876; her second – to pianist and conductor Victor Champion – was in England in 1886. It’s not clear whether or not there was a divorce in between. Her later years are shrouded in mystery. The place and year of her death are unknown. Her fame lives on, however. James Joyce immortalised her in Ulysses, where she is described as an ‘actress and professional beauty.’

[NL] Carte de visite foto van actrice Maude Branscombe, vooral bekend door haar schoonheid. Gemaakt door de Amerikaanse fotograaf Mora, New York, Broadway.

SKU: F10002

Photograph on cardboard, measurement 165 x 105 mm. The photo is in good condition.

€ 96,80 (€ 80,00 ex. btw)

In stock