Studio portrait of a bearded gentleman. Melbourne, circa 1880. (With Lindt’s “View of Melbourne” back mark).

Albumen print photograph, cabinet card format (165 x 110 mm), verso with Lindt’s illustrated advertisement for his studio at 7 Collins Street East, with a superb lithographic bird’s eye view of Melbourne at centre, and below it a cartouche listing Lindt’s major portfolios (Album of Australian Aboriginals; Characteristic Australian Forest Scenery; Genre Pictures of Bush Characters; Men of Mark; and distinguished Visitors to Victoria) as well as the studio’s photographic awards (medals for exhibitions in Philadelphia, Paris, Sydney, Brisbane, and Sandhurst); the print and mount are both in superb condition.

Renowned German-born photographer J. W. Lindt is best known for his famous series of tableau portraits of Clarence Valley Aboriginal people taken in his studio in Prince Street, Grafton, in the Northern Rivers region of New South Wales, around 1873.

The spectacular lithographic back mark on this cabinet card is the earlier of two designs used by Lindt while at his 7 Collins Street East address, following his move to Melbourne in the mid 1870s. (The later back mark had a view of Government House from the Botanic Gardens). By 1889 Lindt had relocated his studio to 294 Collins Street.