Eliza Horatia Frederica Agar-Ellis, Viscountess Clifden of Gowran (1833-96)

This photograph depicts Eliza Horatia Frederica Agar-Ellis, Viscountess Clifden of Gowran, in costume as Fortitude. She holds a sword and is posed against a painted backdrop depicting a cloudy night sky. It is likely the photograph commemorates a tableau vivant- a scene containing one of more people, often dressed in costume. Prince Albert collected many photographs documenting tableaux vivants, including a tableau of his children as the four seasons. The photograph is by Camille Silvy, a man praised as one of the great photographers of the nineteenth century.

The photograph is from an album of photographs collected and arranged by both Prince Albert and, following his death in December 1861, Queen Victoria.