Photo by Alexander Bassano (1829-1913) who was one of the most successful English photographers of the 19th century owning various studio's. Between 1859 and 1863 he had a portrait studio at 72 Piccadilly, London West where this carte de visite portrait of Flora MacDonald Rivington was made. Her date of birth in Kolkata, West Bengal, India is unknown, but she died in 1917 in Worthing, West Sussex, England. She was married to the book printer Alexander Rivington (1837-1917) who died one month after she did.
Alexander Bassano made world famous portraits of queen Victoria as well as the portrait of a pointing army general Lord Kitchener that was used in 1914 on a notorious poster saying: 'Britons, I want you to join your country's army'. The National Portrait Gallery in London houses the immense archive of the Bassano studio's and has put more than 46.000 of his portraits online. Not this one :). Flora is the second Bassano portrait in our collection.