Sarony1883, 19 October
When Irving arrives to-day in New York…
Magazine clipping
Google Books19 October 1883,
The Photographic News, vol. XXVII, no. 1311, p. 664
When Irving arrives to-day in New York, he is to be offered a thousand dollars for the right to photograph him by Sarony. This is the sum paid to Patti, but rather less than that offered to Sarah Bernhardt. We will hazard the opinion that Irving will not accept the offer, for seeing that he is pretty well advertised by photography already, he has nothing to gain except the two hundred pounds, which he does not want. Should he agree, however, he will certainly follow Patti's example, and stipulate that only such pictures as he approves shall be published. Patti ordered all the negatives but one of herself to be broken, so that Sarony only had the sale from a single pose of the illustrious
prima donna.
Theatrical portraits, it seems, sell more than any other in New York. A Broadway shopkeeper, interviewed on the subject, averred that Madame Nilsson's picture was most in demand; but that of Oscar Wilde "sold first-class when first he came over; but there is nothing doing in him now. Irving will sell big; and I guess Ellen Terry will be a big on. We're badly in want of something new."
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