Celebrations marking International Women’s Day earlier this month revealed an intriguing French portrait photograph from the 1860s.
In Britain, the National Trust shone a spotlight on Susan Davidson (1796-1877) calling her a “Victorian Wonder Woman.”
Mrs. Davidson’s crowning achievement is Allen Banks and Staward Gorge, a woodland estate in rural Northumberland to which she devoted more than three decades of her life.
https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/visit/north-east/allen-banks-and-staward-gorge/susan-davidson
To celebrate International Women’s Day, the NT’s Allen Banks and Staward Gorge page on Facebook posted this photograph of Mrs. Davidson.
It was captioned with her full married name, Susan Hussey Elizabeth Davidson, together with the credit “A. Ken. Phot.”
Alexandre Ken (1828-1874) was a photographer with a studio in the Monmartre district of Paris, suggesting a visit by Mrs. Davidson to the French capital to have her portrait taken.
She was not alone. Ken’s portraits of British society figures and aristocracy feature in the National Portrait Gallery, London, and he is described as being “active in the 1860s and 1870s.”
https://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/person/mp72678/alexandre-ken
His image of Mrs. Davidson caught my attention as I had previously come across a portrait in a similar style during my ongoing research into the photography firm of W. & D. Downey.
Titled “Mrs. Davidson of Ridley Hall,” the credit in the bottom left cited “W. & D. Downey, South Shields” as the photographer.
This information enables the portrait to be dated prior to October 1861 when the Downey brothers, William and Daniel, first opened a studio in neighbouring Newcastle upon Tyne.
Both images successfully capture a woman, then in her sixties, who was evidently a force of nature, shaping and managing the large Ridley Hall estate.
Pressphotoman 
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