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Victorian Street Performers

This week, I was inspired by an old Victorian photograph of two street performers, and assigned myself the task of illustrating them as characters. Here’s the photo for side-by-side comparison:

I suppose my drawing takes after she has embroidered her pinafore?

It was a really fun exercise, though I’m still left wondering about the people who inspired my drawing. I found it on the Phono-Optica tumblr page, which posts photographic ephemera featuring musicians from the late 1800 to early 1900s. No clues there – just an item from whole box of such performers lost to time.

What were their names? Did the woman dance or sing? I drew her dancing because it looked like her costume has good movement, but that was a guess. Maybe she played an instrument we can’t see. More than anything, though, I just want to know what their performance was like!