Henry Walter Barnett

A portrait of Mark Twain by Henry Walter Barnett, signed by Twain.

• Henry Walter Barnett (Australian, 1862-1934).
• Inscribed by Mark Twain above the portrait: "Good friends, good books, & a sleepy conscience: / this is the ideal life. / Truly yours Mark Twain"; and below: "Sincerely yours / S.L. Clemens / Feb. 10. 1900."
• Photograph on printed cream mount, framed.

Henry Walter Barnett was a Melbourne-born photographer who worked in the United States and London before returning to Sydney to set up his business there. In 1897, Barnett moved to London, established a studio at Hyde Park Corner and later added another in Knightsbridge. He was a member of the photo-secessionist group The Linked Ring from 1899 to 1901 using the pseudonym "The Antipodean," was a founder member of the Professional Photographers Association (later the British Institute of Professional Photography) in 1901 and was elected to the Royal Photographic Society council in 1903.

In 2000, Roger Neill curated a retrospective at the National Portrait Gallery, Canberra and the State Library of New South Wales, declaring Walter Barnett to be "arguably Australia's first world-class portrait photographer."