Studio portrait of a gentleman. Melbourne, circa 1888. (With Lindt’s “View of Government House” 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 view of Melbourne’s Government House seen from the Botanic Gardens 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, Sandhurst, Melbourne, Christchurch, Amsterdam, Calcutta); the print has some scattered foxing and light marks, the verso of the mount is toned and has a couple of little dents at left edge.

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 later of two designs used by Lindt while at his 7 Collins Street East address, following his move to Melbourne in the mid 1870s. The earlier and perhaps better known of the two back marks featured a bird’s-eye view of Melbourne. In 1889 Lindt relocated his studio to 294 Collins Street.