The early nineteenth century witnessed the rise of the tableau vivant, a static performance inspired by art or literature that could be enacted in public theatres and private drawing-rooms alike. Around 1848, the genre was introduced to the royal family by Queen Victoria and Prince Albert as a form of entertainment for birthdays and Christmas. The royal tableaux were revived after a hiatus following the death of the Prince Consort in 1861 and flourished as the years passed and the children grew older.

This playful photograph, depicting Prince Arthur, Duke of Connaught with his family in Japanese Scene, is one of the few surviving images of the seven tableaux performed before the queen at Osborne House on 8 January 1891. As was common practice in the Royal Household, the actors later re-enacted the scene specifically for the camera. On this occasion, the firm Hughes & Mullins was invited the next day to photograph the tableaux. This particular firm was probably commissioned because of its proximity to Osborne and founder Cornelius Jabez Hughes’s (1819–84) experience working for the royal family since the 1860s.

Unlike the other six tableaux, which explicitly referenced a well-known work of art, literature or legend, it seems that the Japanese Scene did not require specific knowledge to be understood. Instead, this scene was almost certainly inspired by the duke and duchess’s visit to Japan nine months earlier. The composition is reminiscent of the staged ‘customs and costumes’ photographs produced to satisfy western demand for ‘exotic’ Japanese subjects, which the couple acquired in Miyanoshita (Hakone) on 24 April and pasted into their joint diary of the tour. The fact that they chose Japan – of all the countries they visited on their return from India, including China, Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) and Canada – as the subject of their performance speaks of their fascination with the country.

Text adapted from Japan: Courts and Culture (2020)