Father Makay

A pencilled inscription verso in a period hand identifies the sitter as 'Father Makay'. This is possibly Father Peter Paul Mackey (1852-1935) of the English Dominicans. Born Daniel Mackey at Erdlington near Birmingham, his father was Edward Walter Mackey (1806-1871), and artist in oil and watercolours who lived in Erdington High Street, had a studio in Birmingham and taught art at Oscott.

Daniel studied law at Oscott College, the Roman Catholic seminary in Sutton Coldfield, and then theology at Louvain. He moved to Rome in 1881 to edit the works of St Thomas Aquinas and during the 1890s took a series of over 2000 photographs of the city's Roman ruins and the Italian countryside.

A small paper label pasted to the reverse of the mount identifies the stockist where the carte was originally bought - the ecclesiastical furnishers and publishers Burns Oats and Co. - so this must have been a commercially produced portrait of a 'celebrity' available to the general public.

Photographed by the London Stereoscopic and Photographic Company.