Portraits of actors, actresses and singers started to become popular collectors items in the 1860s as the interest in the photographic carte-de-visite developed. The earliest images depicting Prague actors were taken by M. L. Winter, Emanuel Dítě and Karel Antonín Švestka. Other photographers producing such portraits included in particular Jindřich Lachmann in the 1870s, Jan Mulač and Jindřich Eckert in the 1880s, and Jan Tomáš and Jan Langhans towards the end of the century. In the early 20th century, a new, Pictorialist approach was brought to celebrity portraiture by Jindřich Vaněk and František Drtikol.

The Collection Scheufler contains some 1,000 portraits of personalities on large-format negatives as well as positives of multiple sizes.

All of the original images are part of Collection Scheufler. None of the photographs may be reproduced or used in any form or by any means, including downloading, without the prior permission of the owner.

I would like to cordially thank Dr. T. Součková for helping to identify the celebrities and the parts they played.