1876 Woodburytype of Lord Lytton, Viceroy of India

London & Edinburgh: Sampson Low, Marston, Searle, & Rivington, 1876. A sharp and clear oval Woodburytype portrait of 1876 Woodburytype of Lord Lytton, Viceroy of India; approx. 3 1/2" x 4 1/2" size, on the original heavy paper 8 1/2" x 10 1/2" sheet; Edward Robert Bulwer-Lytton, first earl of Lytton [pseud. Owen Meredith] (1831-1891) Viceroy of India and poet, this photograph at relatively early in his career, when just appointed as the Indian Viceroy; "...Both during his lifetime and afterwards, Lord Lytton was compared to the ideal ‘Renaissance man’. Certainly his talents as poet, linguist, diplomat, and statesman were many and varied. However, his greatest achievements came in those areas for which he had only limited regard. His bearing, interest in culture, and knowledge of European languages made him highly successful at moving in the diplomatic circles of aristocratic Europe, and also at introducing to English audiences the genius of the continental Romantic movement... the elaboration of the famine code apart, his viceroyalty in India was a many-sided failure which helped to set the British raj on the path to its eventual extinction. His disaster in Afghanistan broke the spell of British invincibility and encouraged other European powers then rising to challenge for colonial possessions and a share of world dominance. His policies of discriminating between the rights of British and of Indian subjects within the empire and of favouring the traditions of the princes over the modernities represented by the Western-educated classes contributed to the deepening isolation and ossification of the imperial state. As imperial rituals and display became ever grander, the British raj alienated ever broader sections of Indian public opinion and doomed itself to fall among the first victims to anti-colonial nationalism in the twentieth century...." (David Washbrook in the DNB); photograph by Thompson Cooper, Lock & Whitfield photographers; a few light spots to the margins, image not affected; short closed tear in margin, repaired archivally at back, unobtrusive; a handsome and striking portrait of the noted British author & politician in very good condition. . Very Good.