Kate Edith Gough (English, 1856–1948)
Untitled page from the Gough Album, late 1870s
Collage of watercolor and albumen silver prints; 14 5/8 x 11 5/8 in. (37 x 29.5 cm)
V&A Images/Victoria and Albert Museum, London

from the recent Met Museum exhibition “Playing With Pictures: The Art of the Victorian Photocollage.”  The Met writes about this piece and Gough:

A remarkable number of images found in photocollage albums combine humans and animals in fantastical ways; the temptation to cut out a photographed head and place it atop a painted animal seems to have been irresistible. This composition of ducks bearing ladies’ faces—one of them Kate herself, or her identical twin sister, Grace—may have been inspired by Charles Darwin’s new theories of evolution or by political cartoons from magazines such as Punch. On other pages of the Gough Album as well, an irreverent humor, disorienting scale shifts, mischievous visual puns, and whimsical fantasies reveal a sophisticated mind and very accomplished hand.