This cabinet card features an alluring woman lying on a divan in a very provocative pose. Note the leopard skin on the divan. This woman is likely an actress. She appears to be dressed like she is part of a harem. Rather than an actress, she may be a member of a circus act. The photographer is the famous celebrity photographer, Jose Mora. This image is risque for the time that it was made. To view other photographs by Mora, click on the category “Photographer: Mora”. ADDENDUM: An informed visitor to the cabinet card gallery has identified the subject of this cabinet card as being actress Jeffreys-Lewis. See the comment below to learn the interesting details.
RISQUE PORTRAIT OF AN ALLURING WOMAN IN NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK BY JOSE MORA (ACTRESS JEFFREYS-LEWIS?)
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Nearly covered up – save for the provocative knee/ankle reveal – yet at the time I’m sure this card could only be taken out of hiding when the owner was strictly alone!
(if I had seen this card first I’m afraid we would have fought over it!)
Hi there!! this is miss Jeffreys Lewis, a famous victorian stage actress
Here a bunch of images of her
http://www.google.cl/search?ix=hcb&q=%22jeffreys+lewis%22&um=1&ie=UTF-8&hl=es&tbm=isch&source=og&sa=N&tab=wi&ei=UQzuTpaGBIeWtweP3_z2Cg&biw=1366&bih=667&sei=UwzuTpKGHsKatwfjsZTyCQ
Great detective work in identifying Mora’s alluring woman as Miss Jeffreys Lewis. You must have a phenomenal memory for faces. Mary Jeffreys-Lwis (1852-1926) was a British born American stage actress. She came to American in 1873 to perform on the New York stage. She made her Broadway debut the same year. She performed for John Lester Wallack and later, the Augustine Daly company. She toured internationally and her career waned in the late 1880’s. She became more of a character actor at this juncture in her career.
Yes, this is Jeffreys-Lewis. In the 1880s she developed a reputation for playing the adventuress: the female villain in melodramas like “Forget-Me-Not,” “La Belle Russe,” and “Diplomacy.” Her stage presence was bewitching, and she was said to become the character she played so completely that you’d almost forget she was acting. Unlike many other beauties of the late Victorian period, she possessed genuine talent. In 1886 she commanded a salary of $500 per week: a real fortune in that era.