Unidentified sitter

A carte-de-visite portrait of a scantily clad woman, probably an actress. The carte was found on the same page of an album as a portrait of Adah Isaacs Menken dressed as Mazeppa and another of Amy Sheridan dressed as Lady Godiva. It is possible that this is another portrait of Adah Isaacs Menken, but the unusual angle of her face makes a positive identification difficult.

Whoever she is, the costume she is wearing and in particular, her bare legs, would have meant that the photograph carried an erotic charge for the heterosexual male spectator and would have been considered semi-pornographic.

Photographer unidentified [reverse is blank].