After Lydia Dreams (Walter H Lambert) (1869-1949)

After Lydia Dreams (Walter H Lambert) (1869-1949)
'Popularity', hand-coloured photogravure depicting prominent Music Hall Artists of the day 1901-1903, accompanied on the reverse by a key to 231 characters including Dan Leno, Harry Lauder, Will Evans, George Robey, Marie Lloyd, Vesta Tilley and Little Titch, engraved and printed by The Art Photogravure Company Ltd, 40.5 x 95cm (im), 52 x 108 (sh), unframed

Lydia Dreams (1869-1949) Ventriloquist and Painter
Lydia Dreams was a female impersonator ventriloquist who played a nurse using her dummy for a patient. She was active in the early decades of the 20th century.
Her male persona, Walter H Lambert was also a talented painter. The best known painting was Popularity, 1903, a canvas 13' by 5'6" (4 x 1.68m) which depicts 226 prominent music hall artists. It is situated at the junction of Lower Marsh and Waterloo Road, London, which was known in the profession as Poverty Corner where unemployed artists gathered. In 1908 it was put on show at the Vaudeville Club but in 1914 when the owner of the painting died, it was sold for £140. It is now in the Museum of London.