
The subject of this cabinet card has a very intriguing appearance. She is young, attractive and mysterious. The reverse of the Cabinet card presents even more to ponder. Glued to the back of this Cabinet card is a vintage photograph of a Black family. Are the photos related or is there another explanation? I believe that this Cabinet card comes from the studio of R Krziwanek of Vienna, Austria. I am not sure of my translation, so any help in identifying the photographer and studio location would be appreciated.
The photographer is definitely Rudolf Krziwanek whose studio was at
5 Hofstallstrasse in Vienna’s seventh district (Neubau) (from at least the early 1870s). Can you post a picture of the African family on the back? African peoples from the (then-called) Gold Coast were ‘on display’ in the Tiergarten Zoo) in the Prater in ‘ethnographic villages’ in 1896 and 1897 (and other groups from other parts of Africa in other years) and there were many photographs taken for sale to paying guests of the zoo.