A portrait photograph of the mysterious Countess of X. This gum print has been heavily re-worked, including the addition or at least heavy embellishment of the subject’s scarf. Exhibited at the 1902 Photographic Salon, (Linked Ring) it was reviewed that year in Photograms of the Year:

Not often does a newcomer reach in one step the standard attained by David Blount in 1901. His success has apparently caused a demand for portrait exercises by him, and in addition to landscape and figure compositions, many of his works this year are in portraiture.

Reference will probably have to be made to his contributions later, but in the meantime the Countess of X. (this page) may be discussed. It can hardly be said that the mannered arrangement of the well-favoured sitter gets away from convention.

The soft treatment of the general scheme of blacks and greys is commendable enough, but there is an accentuation of the lines of the features (which the high-light on the nose and cheek further heightens) that destroys the feeling for quality shown in the treatment of the hand and corsage. This forced prettiness is allowable, or at any rate expected, in professional photography, but it should be foreign to work that has the claims which Mr. Blount should prefer. (1.)

David Blount: 1879-1948

David Blount became a member of the Linked Ring brotherhood on September 22, 1902. (pseudonym: Interloper) He made his living as a commercial photographer and was from Newcastle on Tyne, England.  The following short biography of Blount was included in Margaret Harker’s: The Linked Ring: The Secession in Photography 1892-1910, published in 1979:

“His contemporaries regarded Blount of James Bacon and Sons, professional photographers, of Newcastle as being amongst the first rank of photographers during the early years of this century. He was prominent both in anecdotal figure studies (Plate 5.4) and landscape, using the gum process to modify detailed information in his photographs to achieve pictorial effect.” -p.147

1891 English Census: David Blount, 19, apprentice photographer…

1901 English Census: David Blount, 29, photographic operator…

1903: …”as early as 1903, the work of two famous overseas Pictorialists – David Blount and Edward Steichen – was shown at the International Exhibition of the Photographic Society of New South Wales. Blount belonged to the British photographic group The Linked Ring and Steichen was a member of America’s Photo-Secession.” – Excerpt: exhibition essay: Highlights and soft Shadows: Pictorialism in Australian Photography-Exhibition- 8 Jun – 29 Sep 1985

1905: Blount, judging the Gateshead Camera Club Annual Exhibition, is mentioned in the Newcastle Daily Chronicle on 27 December: “The response. however, was not as spontaneous as could have been wished, and the judge, Mr David Blount, who adjudicated with every dispatch and satisfaction, only awarded one of the prizes in this section. Mr Blount spoke in high terms of the exhibition as a whole and eulogized particularly the work in the open section. This was, indeed, the feature of the display, the pictures being of a high standard and revealing much pictorial- instinct and good taste on the part of the producers.  Where the exhibition was weak was in figure study a greater representation of which would have been welcome.” 

1911 English Census: Elswick, Newcastle upon Tyne – David Blount, 38, photographer…

1922: A notice of the photographic business partnership for the firm “James Bacon & Sons” is officially dissolved in a notice published in the London Gazette on 30 November, 1923. Through mutual consent, the partners Richard James Bacon, William Herbert Bacon, and David Blount agree to go their separate ways in business. It’s not known how long Blount was affiliated with this partnership.

1926 English Probate Record: David Blount, photographer….Source: David Blount: English Census & Probate records: WikiTree, accessed 2024

1. Excerpt (work of David Blount) Photograms of the Year 1902, London: Dawbarn & Ward, Ltd., p. 94