Inscribed Sarony Cabinet Card Photo of Tommaso Salvini to American Actress Marie Wainwright during Salvini's 1886 American Tour in which he acted opposite Edwin Booth and Wainwright

New York: Sarony, 1886. NA. Very Good. The inscription, below the oval half-profile of Salvini, reads: "A Madame Marie Wainwright comme souvenir de l'artiste Tommaso Salvini 11, Mai 1886. We are reasonably confident this is an inscription by Salvini given its close match to his handwriting easily accessed on the Internet, notwithstanding the peculiar third person wording. The recipient, Marie Wainwright (1853-1923) was a famous actress of the day who played opposite Salvini during the tour, which was promoted for pairing Salvini with the top American Shakespearean actor of the day, Edwin Booth. the Tommaso Salvini (1829-1915) was an influential and legendary Italian actor, with an international career that one might liken to that of Bernhardt or Duse, who when abroad still performed in Italian. He toured the United States five times. In the 1886 tour, he played Othello to Edwin Booth's Iago, as well as the Ghost to Booth's Hamlet. In these performances Wainwright was the Desdemona and Othelia, respectively. The extraodinary thing about these performances was that all the players delivered their lines in English, excepting Salvini! And it was widely thought that only an actor of the stature and genius of a Salvini could pull off such a bizarre rendering of the plays. Sarony, whose studio created this cabinet card, was the leading purveyor of cabinet cards in New York City, and in many ways was a pioneer in the art of photography. A photo portrait by Sarony was de rigeur for any actor, singer, or other performer of note or ambition in New York, and any major player posed for Sarony many, many times. This cabinet card is the standard 16.5 by 10.5 cm, the photo portion being 14.5 by 10 cm, and Salvini here is posed in a half-profile, looking with his intense eyes into the distance but not at the camera, and mostly bald, with a thick moustache, he appears vigorous, serious, and clearly middle aged.