Dorothy Wilding, day books

The following holdings relating to Dorothy Wilding's photography studio are held in the NPG Archive:

- Studio ledger and sitters book, New York, 15 Nov 1937-25 May 1956 (formerly MS 15)
Contains index of sitters at front of volume, spanning pages 1 to 62, detailing page number further details can be found on. Pages 64 to 272 contain lists of sitters in chronological order detailing date of sitting, number of sitting, name and address of sitter. Occasionally information is provided on the photograph and also occasionally comments on the sitters, e.g. married, deceased. The back of the volume contains lists on men, publishers, and a unpopulated list titled Royal Family. Further details on some of the sittings can be found in the day books listed below.

- Day book, New York, 1 Jan 1946-31 Dec 1946 (formerly MS 25)
Contains index of sitters with reference to page of full entry. Full entries contain the number of sitting, the date of sitting, name and address of sitter, type of sitting, details of fee and payment. Occasionally there are comments inserted in the sitting record regarding details of who to send photographs to if different from sitter. Details of complimentary photographs are at the front of the volume.

- Day book, New York, 1 Jan 1947-31 Dec 1947 (formerly MS 26)
Contains index of sitters with reference to page of full entry. Full entries contain the number of sitting, the date of sitting, name and address of sitter, type of sitting, details of fee and payment. Occasionally there are comments inserted in the sitting record regarding details of who to send photographs to if different from sitter. Details of complimentary photographs are at the front of the volume.

- Day book 1951, New York (formerly MS 27)
The inside front cover contains note in pencil recording decision made on May 24th to record resits from the same year to be recorded under original entry. Another note on the next page gives details on complimentary sittings in 1951. The volume contains index of sitters with reference to page of full entry. Full entries contain the number of sitting, the date of sitting, name and address of sitter, type of sitting, details of fee and payment. Occasionally there are comments inserted in the sitting record regarding details of who to send photographs to if different from sitter. Details of complimentary photographs are at the front of the volume. The back inside cover includes several notes in pencil, including details of pricing and enquiries for sittings.

Dorothy Wilding (1893-1976) was born in Longford, Gloucestershire. She was the youngest of nine children of Richard Wilding and Mary Martha Edwards. At the age of four she went to live with her childless aunt and uncle Thomas and Fanny Hayter in Cheltenham. Her childhood ambitions were to be an actress or painter. An early interest in picture postcards led Wilding at 16 to buy her first camera and tripod. In 1910 she moved to London, she first undertook an apprenticeship with the retoucher Ernest Chandler, an associate of the fashionable portrait photographer H. Walter Barnet. In 1914 at 21 with £60 of savings she opened her first studio at 67 George Square.

By 1918 Wilding had moved to a top floor studio at 264 Regent Street, her work was in such steady demand that she employed seven staff. Most of her staff would be women and at her peak in the 1930s she employed nearly 40. Many of Wilding's employees adopted her idiosyncratic style and some portraits attributed to her are likely to have been taken by assistants. Wilding's style made her subjects beautiful, striking and modern whilst at the same time classical and sensual. Her portraits were further characterised by bright lighting, dramatic retouching, distinctive props and her strict rules for posing.

In July 1920 Wilding married Walter Oscar Portham, a leather merchant, they divorced 11 years later. In 1932 she married Thomas (Rufus) Leighton Pearce, an interior decorator who was responsible for the modernist and striking design of her Bond Street studio. Wilding exhibited her work, both in Britain and abroad, from 1923 onwards. She also became involved in commercial work, including for the Condor Hat Company, and began to supply periodicals with images of leading actresses. In 1928 she took her first Royal portrait with Prince George, later Duke of Kent, she would go on to take the official engagement portraits when he became engaged to Princess Marina in 1934. This led to her taking the official coronation portraits of George VI in 1937 and Elizabeth II in 1952, the later was the basis of a design of a British postage stamp issued between 1952-1967.

Wilding opened a second studio in New York in 1937, her Bond Street studio was bombed in World War Two with almost all the early negatives, prints and records being destroyed. She continued to work in New York with her American subjects inspiring some of her best later work - the Duke and Duchess of Windsor were also regular clients.

The late 1950s saw Wilding's style of studio portraiture become less fashionable, she exhibited her work for the last time in 1957 at the London Salon of Photography. In 1958 her autobiography 'In Pursuit of Perfection' was published and she sold her business for £3000 to one of her assistants, Tom Hustler, the studio stayed in business until 1973. Wilding died in February 1976 of heart failure, in her will she left bequests to many of her long serving assistants. The National Portrait Gallery holds over 900 of her original negatives and prints.

Available to view by appointment in the Heinz Archive and Library Public Study Room, to make an appointment contact Archive Reception . Although records are generally available for public consultation, some information in them, such as personal data or information supplied to the Gallery in confidence, may be restricted.

Personal photography is permitted for research purposes only. Photocopying is not permitted.