Blavatsky photographs and portraits

Frontispiece of World Theosophy, September, 1931

These are photographs, paintings, drawings, sculptures, and other depictions of Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, also known as Madame Blavatsky or HPB. They are presented chronologically by date of creation, as much as possible. Individual renderings and small groups are included, but not large group photos such as those taken at early Theosophical Society conventions. Cartoons and caricatures have been omitted.

This collection of photos was inspired by a display on the Theosophy Canada website in 2005, "A Pictorial Look at H. P. Blavatsky," which has more recently evolved into a slide show. Many thanks go to the Edmonton Theosophical Society for the website, and to Geoffrey Barborka for the research that went into its collection.

Images used here are from several sources, but most were scanned from the photo collection of the Theosophical Society in America and from printed publications. The digital photo collection of Blavatsky Archives was an important source. Other sources are identified where possible, with copyright data if applicable for the more recent works. Additions and corrections are welcome - especially information that might help pinpoint the dates and creators of these works. Contact the wiki administrators with suggestions. Higher-resolution versions are available for some photos from Theosophical Society in America Archives.

Please be certain to ask the creators for permission before making use of copyright-protected photographs and art.

>>> See also a gallery of closeups of HPB compiled by Daniel H. Caldwell. <<<

Photograph or Art Work	Year Created	Artist	Notes
	Late 1840s	Unknown	Painting of young H. P. Blavatsky and her mother, H. Hahn. It is at the H. P. B. museum in Dnepropetrovsk, Ukraine. The painter is unknown, but it may have been HPB herself.
	1840s	Unknown	HPB painted as "The Lovely Maiden." The reproduction was made by means of a special process from a printed copy which was first published in Sinnett's book "Incidents in the Life of Mme. Blavatsky." The print was from a medallion painting, which had been sent to Nadyejda de Fadeyev (as related when her photograph was shown. A print "copied by" the London studio of Elliott & Fry is in the photo album of HBP's sister Vera Jelihovsky, which is held by the State Archives of the Russian Federation. A scan of that print is available at the Ukrainian website art-roerich.org.ua. The portrait also appears in a collage as the frontispiece of World Theosophy in September 1931. The image shown here was provided by the Blavatsky Archives website of Daniel H. Caldwell.
	1865-1868	Unknown	Young HPB dressed in furs. Printed in H. P. Blavatsky Collected Writings Volume I.
	1860s	Unknown	HPB in a hoop skirt. Most likely the picture about which General Rostislav wrote: "taken 20 years ago in my presence." September 18, 1881. This portrait appears in a collage as the frontispiece of World Theosophy in September 1931 and also printed in a rectangular format in H. P. Blavatsky Collected Writings Volume I.
	ca1870	Unknown	HPB around 1870. Printed in H. P. Blavatsky Collected Writings Volume II.
	1870s	Unknown	Photograph reproduced in A. P. Sinnett's Incidents in the Life of Mme. Blavatsky, and edition in 1913, but not in the 1886 first edition. This portrait also appears in H. P. Blavatsky Collected Writings Volume II, and in a collage as the frontispiece of World Theosophy in September 1931.
	Early 1875	Unknown spiritualist photographer	Portrait by a spiritualist photographer in New York. HPB wrote of this in a May 20, 1875 letter to Professor Hiram Corson: You may think me perhaps a cheat if you did not forget that I promised you my portrait, and that you have to see it yet. But I am not to be blamed. I seldom allow my noble countenance to get immortalized in portraits. I have none, and passing through New York had some taken at a spirit photographers. There I am, represented on it looking like some elderly idiot staring disconsolately at a she spirit with a rooster crest on its head, making faces at me. Really, putting all vanity aside, how can I send you such an awful caricature? So I gave two of those libel pictures to two persons I do not care about; but neither you nor Mrs. Andrews, nor Mr. Sargent, or even Olcott got one, and have to wait. Printed in H. P. Blavatsky Collected Writings Volume I and XIV. This photo was scanned from the Geoffrey Barborka book Tibet and Tulku, and was inscribed by HPB to her friend, poet Epes Sargent. Another version, provided by the Blavatsky Archives website, was inscribed to Hiram Corson. Evidently HPB was persuaded to order additional prints after distributing the first two.
	October 3 or 4, 1875	Jefferson Beardsley	HPB inscription to Nadezhda Andreyevna Photograph taken in Ithaca NY in October 1875 while HPB was visiting Professor Hiram Corson and writing Isis Unveiled. In an undated letter, written to Professor H. Corson, H.P.B. wrote about the photographs Beardsley had taken: The important factor here is that H.P.B. actually ordered two dozen portraits made of this special photograph. "When will Beardsley send me the rest of my portraits? Please order from him two dozen more of those with the cigarette in the hand, only bigger, if he can do them. I will enclose you a post office order for eighty-five dollars in my next; if you answer me, that he is at work on them. I suppose by the thirteen dollars he, too, charged me for the three dozen, that every extra dozen will be four twenty-five. Will you inquire please?" A print of this photo is in the photo album of HBP's sister Vera Jelihovsky, which is held by the State Archives of the Russian Federation. A scan of that print is available at the Ukrainian website art-roerich.org.ua. An inscription on the back of the photo, in HPB's handwriting, can be roughly translated as "Sweet and dear Nadezhda Andreyevna, comrade of childhood and nightly dinners. From the secretary of the Theosophical Society, E. Blavatsky."
	October 3 or 4, 1875	Jefferson Beardsley	Another photograph taken in Ithaca NY in October 1875 while HPB was visiting Professor Hiram Corson and writing Isis Unveiled. The date can be established by a letter from Mrs. Corson to her son Eugene, which describes events between October 2 and October 5: "We went next to Beardsley for her picture. She has a magnificent sort of gold-embroidered cloak, worn in the Caucasus, which she drapes around her in a fanciful fashion." [quoting Mrs. Corson] Mrs. Corson had a photograph of herself taken in it, feeling that she never had a better picture taken, but for some reason it would not develop. [narrative by Michael Gomes] This photo appeared as the frontispiece of the November, 1928 issue of The Theosophist, labelled "An Unpublished Photograph of H.P.B. about 1879," but that year is incorrect. Also printed in H. P. Blavatsky Collected Writings Volume XV.
	1876	Napoleon Sarony	Sarony took this photo of HPB in 1876 in New York. It was offered for sale for 50 cents in The Path. One extant print of this photograph was printed by the Beardsley studio in Ithaca, New York. [It was not unknown in those days for one studio to make prints from the work of another studio.] That print, found in a Stainton Moses collection in the College of Psychic Studies archives, has a handwritten notation: "The Mulligan of 1878." Mulligan was a nickname that Henry Steel Olcott used for Madame Blavatsky. The Sarony photo was printed in H. P. Blavatsky Collected Writings Volume III and VI, and has served as the inspiration for an 1878 engraving, and also for a newer watercolor (shown below). This image was provided by Blavatsky Archives.
	1876-1877	Napoleon Sarony	Taken in New York and used as a frontispiece in early editions of Isis Unveiled. Also printed in H. P. Blavatsky Collected Writings Volume III and other works.
	1876-1878	Edsall Photographic Studio	Taken in New York. Printed in H. P. Blavatsky Collected Writings Volume IV.
	1876-1878	Napoleon Sarony	Portrait of Helena Petrovna Blavatsky by Napoleon Sarony in 1877. This image is from the photo album of HBP's sister Vera Jelihovsky, which is held by the State Archives of the Russian Federation. The back of the print is stamped "Sarony’s Imperial Portraits, 37 Union Square, New York." A scan of the print is available at the Ukrainian website art-roerich.org.ua.
	1877	Napoleon Sarony	This photograph was printed as a carte de visite by the Sarony studio in 1877. The image shown here was scanned from a framed print in the Theosophical Society in America Archives.
	Unknown	1878	Engraving derived from the 1876 photograph by N. Sarony. Mr. Buchanan wrote a profile of HPB for The Phrenological Journal and the journal added this illustration. An editorial note says: For the admirable photograph from which our portrait was engraved we are indebted to M. Sarony, of Broadway, while our acknowledgments are due to Prof. J. R. Buchanan, M.D., for contributions to our phrenological notes."
	1878	Edward Wimbridge	Edward Wimbridge was an artist and architect who embarked for India with HPB and Colonel Olcott in 1878. He designed the cover for the first issue of The Theosophist. In her diary, HPB noted that on September 11, 1878, Wimbridge prepared this image for engraving. It was etched on copper and appeared in the 1878 fourth edition of Isis Unveiled published by J. W. Bouton in New York. From Joma Sipe's copy of Isis Unveiled.
	1878	Unknown	HPB en route to India in December, 1878.
	1878	William R. O'Donovan	Bronze medallion sculpted by William R. O'Donovan, who knew visited Madame Blavatsky and Colonel Olcott at The Lamasery. His friendship and the medallion are described by Olcott in Old Diary Leaves, Volume 1, pages 411-412.
	1880	Charles T. Scowen	Charles T. Scowen was a British photographer who worked in Sri Lanka and India from 1871–1890. He set up a studio in Kandy by 1876, and later opened a second in Colombo. HPB and Colonel Olcott visited Ceylon from May 16 to July 13, 1880. Image from New York Public Library Digital Collection.
	1880	Unknown	Taken in Benares (now Varanasi), India, in 1880. This photo was downloaded from the Ukrainian website art-roerich.org.ua. It was scanned from the photo album of HPB's sister Vera Jelihovsky, in the State Archives of the Russian Federation.
	1880	Unknown	Taken in Galle, Ceylon [now Sri Lanka]. HPB and Colonel Olcott visited Ceylon from May 16 to July 13, 1880. This image is from Blavatsky Archives website, and also appears in Volume II of Blavatsky Collected Writings, where it is opposite page 400. The original is in the Adyar Archives.
	1880	Unknown	Taken in Galle, Ceylon [now Sri Lanka]. HPB and Colonel Olcott visited Ceylon from May 16 to July 13, 1880. This image is scanned from Volume II of Blavatsky Collected Writings, where it is opposite page 464.
	ca1882	Unknown	This photo was used as a carte de visite made in Madras (now Chennai), India. The image shown here was presented in 2006 at an exhibition called ""Helena Blavatsky: Destinies and Faces ..." The Roerich Research Foundation (St. Petersburg) and the Adamant Cultural and Educational Center (Lomonosov) sponsored this event at the N. K. Roerich in Novosibirsk to honor the 175th anniversary of HPB's birth: The exhibition in Novosibirsk for the first time presents the original of an unknown portrait of E.P. Blavatsky, made in the photographic studio of Madras. On the back is her autograph, not previously published: "To Princess Olga Petrovna Volkonskaya as a sign of respect, love and devotion from the nineteenth-century Indian avatars Radda Bai. Elena Blavatsky. Nice. March 1884." Unfortunately, about Princess Volkonskaya (nee Kleinmichel) so far very little information has been found. Another version of the image is available at BlavatskyTheosophy.com, where the publication history of the photo is given.
	1882-1884	Unknown	HPB with T. Subba Row and Babaji ca 1882-1884. From New York Public Library Digital Collection. A carte de visite at the Winterthur Library seems to be from the same studio in Madras that printed the "ca1882" photo shown above. Printed in H. P. Blavatsky Collected Writings Volume V.
	1884	Unknown	HPB is posed with a large fan. H. P. Blavatsky Collected Writings Volume V, page 257 states that Laura Holloway was the photographer, but Alice Cleather wrote of the photograph as being taken for Laura Holloway: From The Word, 1915 The portrait which forms the frontispiece to the present volume was taken in London in 1884 for Mrs. Laura Langford. H. P. B. gave me a copy, but it has never before been published to my knowledge. - A.L.C. The Word magazine published this version in Volume 22, No. 3, December 1915, facing p. 136. The portrait also appears in a collage as the frontispiece of World Theosophy in September 1931.
	1884	Unknown	Detail from the previous portrait.
	1884	Unknown	Another pose of HPB with a fan, almost certainly from the same photography session as the previous photographs taken for Laura Holloway.
	1884	Unknown	Detail from the previous portrait. Described in H. P. Blavatsky Collected Writings Volume VI as HPB "in her forties," and "reproduced from a photograph given by William Quan Judge to Mrs. Harriet Farrar in New York."
	1884	Unknown	This portrait is from the photo album of HBP's sister Vera Jelihovsky, which is held by the State Archives of the Russian Federation. An inscription on the back of the photo, in HPB's handwriting, is roughly translated as " Elena Petrovna Blavatsky. In a difficult moment of life..." The image shown here is scan of the original, posted at the Ukrainian website art-roerich.org.ua. The Russian Archives dates the photo as 1867-1868, but that is clearly incorrect. Based on the clothing, this is almost certainly one of the photos taken for Laura Holloway in 1884. The photo was first published in The Review of Reviews, 1893, page 493. It is also in Geoffrey Barborka's work, Tibet and Tulku, on page 160.
	1884-1885	Hermann Schmiechen	Fragment This is the first painting of HPB by Hermann Schmiechen. It "was made at Elberfeld in September, 1884, and was later presented by Mrs. Toni Schmeichen to the Esoteric School; for some years past, it has been in C. Jinarajadasa's home, 33 Covington Square, London," according to Boris de Zirkoff, writing in 1954.
	1884-1885	Hermann Schmiechen	This is the second painting of HPB by Hermann Schmiechen. "The second portrait, reproduced herewith, was for many years at the London Headquarters, 19 Avenue Road. It is now in the Hall of the Indian Section, at Benares," according to Boris de Zirkoff. Edmund Russell wrote of HPB's reaction to the painting: The Schmeichen portrait at Adyar I have always liked. A suggestion of prophetess in the dim cave. It was just this that did not please her. She thought it made her look too much like a Sybil. This portrait is reproduced facing page 553 in the HPB Centenary Number of The Theosophist, published in August, 1931. Mr. Jinaranadasa provided the dimensions of the painting: 4 ft. 6 3/4 inches by 3 ft. 2 3/4 inches [139 cm x 98.4 cm]. It also appears in a collage as the frontispiece of World Theosophy in September 1931.
	1885	Giulia Hoffman Tedesco	Reverse side of postcard. A portrait of HPB was painted by prominent German artist Giulia Tedesco - probably inspired by an earlier photograph. It was printed in a postcard format by Alfieri & LaCroix in Milan. This postcard is in the collection of Joma Sipe.
	1887	Unknown	Photo of HPB reading a book "while residing in Maycot, Crownhill, Upper Norwood, London, at Mabel Collins' home She left Ostend for London, May 1, 1887."
	1888	William Quan Judge	Kodak camera This view is of HPB at her desk at 17 Landsdowne Road, London, taken by William Quan Judge with a Kodak camera as she was working on Lucifer. The picture was originally published in The Path, New York, Vol. VII, May, 1892, p.39." Mr. Judge wrote of the occasion: [No photographs] were obtained of her as she paused in her work until in 1888 this little photograph seized her, after consent, just as she was beginning the day’s work on Lucifer, then in its babyhood. She had, only a short while before, come out from the room behind her and sat down at the desk on which the first pages of Lucifer were begun and whereon most, if not all, of The Secret Doctrine was written. The pen in her hand is an American Gold pen given to her by a New York Theosophist and made by John Foley, whose name is known to thousands of writers. The sheet of paper in front is a sheet of the MSS. of The Secret Doctrine, and others lie about. This copy of the photograph was provided courtesy of Will Thackara at International Theosophical Society (Pasadena); restoration of photo by Vladimir Krasnoperov.
	1888	Unknown	Taken October, 1888 in London. HPB is seated next to her sister, Vera de Zhelihovsky. Standing behind them are Vera Johnston, Charles Johnston, and Henry Steel Olcott.
	1888	Unknown	While this photo has sometimes been identified as one of the Resta series from January 8, 1888, it has more likely been cropped from the previous family photo. Blavatsky Archives provided this image, which was also printed in H. P. Blavatsky Collected Writings Volume VIII.
	1888	Unknown	H. P. Blavatsky and Henry Steel Olcott in their final meeting, taken in October 1888 in London. "H.P.B.'s tobacco-basket [under HPB's hand] is now in the possession of Geoffrey Watkin, London," Boris de Zirkoff wrote in 1964. The photographic reproduction in Collected Writings Volume X, page 176, shows the following message handwritten by HPB: "To the Aryan Theosophical Society of New York, with H.P.B.'s and the H.S.O.'s good wishes," London, October, 1888.
	January 8, 1889	Enrico Resta	"The Sphinx" pose - the most famous image of HPB. This was taken in Resta's studio at 4 Coburg Place, Bayswater, London on January 8, 1889. Six glass plates were taken altogether; in some HPB is looking to the side or is holding a cigarette. The originals are now located in the Archives of the Blavatsky Lodge of the Theosophical Society in England, with duplicates at Elliott & Fry, Ltd. in London. Image from the Theosophical Society in America Archives, scanned from Elliot & Fry print. This photograph has been printed in publications more than any other. including H. P. Blavatsky Collected Writings Volume XI. Among the first was The Path in February, 1890.
	January 8, 1889	Enrico Resta	This is another of the six poses taken in Resta's studio at 4 Coburg Place, Bayswater, London on January 8, 1889.
	January 8, 1889	Enrico Resta	This is another of the six poses taken in Resta's studio at 4 Coburg Place, Bayswater, London on January 8, 1889. From Blavatsky Archives. Printed in H. P. Blavatsky Collected Writings Volume X.
	January 8, 1889	Enrico Resta	This is another of the six poses taken in Resta's studio at 4 Coburg Place, Bayswater, London on January 8, 1889. Scanned from H. P. Blavatsky Collected Writings Volume XII. See also Blavatsky Archives.
	1890	Unknown	HPB sitting in a bath-chair, with G. R. S. Mead (right) and James Morgan Pryse. Taken in London.
	1890	Unknown	HPB sitting in a bath-chair. This portrait appears in a collage as the frontispiece of World Theosophy in September 1931.
	1890-1891	Unknown	HPB in a white lace shawl holding a copy of The Path. Probably the last photo taken of her. It was reproduced in A. P. Sinnett's Incidents in the Life of Mme. Blavatsky, 2nd edition in 1913, but not in the 1886 first edition. This portrait also appears in a collage as the frontispiece of World Theosophy in September 1931, and also in H. P. Blavatsky Collected Writings Volume XIII.
	1891	Unknown	Side view of death mask of HPB as printed in May 1991 issue of The Theosophist.,
	1891	Unknown	Front view of death mask of HPB, as printed on the cover of the May 1913 issue of The American Theosophist.
	1892	Reginald Machell	Illustration of HPB listening to a quill pen in the story "A Bewitched Life (as Narrated by a Quill Pen)." It is the first story in Nightmare Tales written by HPB and published posthumously. See page 4 in most editions. The caption under the illustration says, I noticed a light flashing from under his pen. A bright colored spark that became instantaneously a sound. It was the small voice of the quill. An account in Lucifer relates that both the cover art of Nightmare Tales and this illustration were created by Reginald Machell, along with "some clever tailpieces, consisting of Japanese monsters of indescribable curliness."
	ca1889-1909	Gutzon Borglum	Painted for his Theosophist father by the sculptor of Mount Rushmore, copied from the Resta photograph. This painting hangs in the Meditation Room in the headquarters building of the Theosophical Society in America. It was painted between 1889 and 1909, when the father died.
	ca1893	P. Vishnevsky	This engraving is modeled after the 1876 photo by Napoleon Sarony. It has been scanned from the Russian book «Загадочные племена на Голубых горах в дебрях Индии. Дурбар в Лагоре». СПб, 1893. (Mysterious Tribes from the Blue Mountains in the Deep of India; Durbar in Lahor, St.Peterburg, 1893.) The book is a compilation of articles originally printed in the Russian magazine Ruskii Viestnik (Russian Messenger) during the years 1883-1886 when HPB was supporting herself by writing travel stories.. The position of the left hand is an exaggeration of that in the 1877 photo, and may be a Masonic hand gesture. Thanks go to Oleg Boldyrev for providing the image. The location of the original art is unknown.
	ca1896	Unknown	This is the cover art for a purported autobiography dictated from beyond the grave by Madame Blavatsky, Posthumous Memoirs by Helena Petrovna Blavatsky. Joseph M. Wade, in the preface to this work, described how the spirit of George W. Stephens operated a typewriting machine designed by G. W. N. Yost, whose spirit supervised the operation. The typewriter was enclosed in a cabinet placed a few feet away from a medium who was connecting with HPB. Published in Boston by Jos. M Wade and in London by H. A. Copley 1896. Available from Library of Congress. The image may be an automatic drawing.
	1898	Ferdinand Schirren	This plaster sculpture called "Portrait de Madame Helena Blavatski" was created by Belgian artist Ferdinand Schirren (1872-1944). It is in a private collection in Brussels, according to the ResearchGate website, where it was posted by Clerbois Sébastien.
	1907	Govinda Pillai	This statue stands in the Great Hall of the Headquarters Building in Adyar, Chennai, India. "The Colonel stands beside H. P. Blavatsky, who is seated, with his hand on her shoulder, an upright, robust figure, with venerable beard and strongly cut features." The statue was unveiled on December 7, 1907." Colonel Olcott had died on February 17 of that year, and the unveiling was an occasion to honor him and his work with Madame Blavatsky. Tribute addresses were given by Sir S. Subramania Iyer, Mr. V. C. Seshachariar, Dr. W. A. English, Mr. P. T. Srinivasa Iyengar, Mr. Sitarama Shastri, Mrs. Russak, and Annie Besant.
	1920-30s	James Montgomery Flagg	This sketch was made from the Jefferson Beardsley photograph of 1875. James Montgomery Flagg (1877-1960) was a well-known portraitist and the highest-paid American magazine illustrator of his time. He is famous for the 1917 recruitment poster of Uncle Sam saying "I want you for the U. S. Army." Flagg is known to have been at a Star Camp in Ojai, California in 1928, so he had some familiarity with the Theosophical Society and Jiddu Krishnamurti. He also sketched Annie Besant, Krishnamurti, and Charles Webster Leadbeater from photos for Theosophical journals. His wife Dorothy was a member of the American Theosophical Society in New York from 1930-1934. This image is from Montreal Theosophy Project. It appears on the cover of H. P. Blavatsky Collected Writings Volume XV, and in works by Howard Murphet.
	1930	Z. Vanessa Helder	Graphite sketch based on an 1878 photograph, as published in World Theosophy vol. 1 no. 8, August 1931, p. 599. Previously it had been printed in The Personality of H. P. Blavatsky, a pamphlet written by C. Jinarājadāsa in 1930.
	1930	J. Augustus Knapp	Painting displaying an imaginative representation of HPB and her Masters. A black and white image of this painting has been in circulation with the false claim that it was an actual photograph taken at Adyar. The original painting is held at the Philosophical Research Society in Los Angeles, California.
	2004	Alexey Leonov	This work, entitled "Sphinx of XIX century," is made of a ceramic called "grog" (also known as firesand and chamotte). It is in a private collection in Moscow.
	2008	Alexey Leonov	This original sculpture is in the Museum of H.P.Blavatsky and her family (Dnepr, Ukraine). In 2015-2016, bronze versions of this pose were installed at the Theosophical Society headquarters in Adyar, Chennai, India, and at the International Theosophical Centre in Naarden, The Netherlands. These installations were facilitated by Dialogue of Cultures - United World Fund.
	2011	Alexey Leonov	This sculpture is on permanent exhibition at "Великие Учителя человечества" (Great Teachers of Humanity) in the ethnographic park "Этномир" (Ethno-world), Kaluga region, Russia.
	Unknown, before 2000s	Unknown	This pencil drawing was made from the 1850s photograph. It was scanned from a reproduction of the pencil drawing in Theosophical Society in America Archives.
	Unknown	Rudolf Strauch	Engraving by Rudolf Strauch of Leipzig, from the Archive of Swedish Cultural Common. Copied from 1889 Resta photograph. Contact Åbo Akademie for high-resolution image or commercial use.
	Unknown	Unknown	Watercolor derived from photograph by N. Sarony in 1876. Location of original is unknown. Scanned from photograph.
	Unknown	Unknown	Painting derived from 1887 photograph taken at Maycot. Artist and location of original are unknown. Scanned from photograph in Theosophical Society in America Archives.