Portrait of Gabrielle Enthoven

This is the only known painting of Mrs Gabrielle Enthoven (1868-1950), whose collection of over 80,000 programmes, prints and play texts was accepted by the V&A in 1924, becoming the founding collection of the museum's Theatre and Performance section. In 1922 the V&A had staged the International Theatre Exhibition, first seen in Amsterdam, which had increased the interest in theatre history. Enthoven had long campaigned for 'a comprehensive theatre section in an existing museum' and, following its acquisition by the V&A, she worked voluntarily on the collection, augmenting it and paying for cataloguing help until her death in 1950.