Richard "Dick" Wadeson, a music hall artist born in Wigan, Lancashire, is captured here in a dramatic promotional cabinet card made by Alfred Poole of Morecambe, whose studio operated from 1876 to 1914. Wadeson performs a headstand atop a barrel-style prop decorated with his stage name in large painted lettering, his feet secured overhead by a suspended wooden platform, the full inverted figure filling the vertical frame. The reverse inscription places him at age 44 in 1901, living at Ince in Makerfield, Lancashire, a detail that anchors the image to a specific moment in his performing career.

The performer wears a light-colored costume with decorative star and ribbon trim running the length of both legs, and high laced boots with pale uppers. His arms brace against the top of the barrel, and his head is pressed downward into the prop, while a painted studio backdrop of palm fronds and classical columns provides the theatrical setting standard to variety-act portraiture of the period.

Music hall in the nineteenth century drew crowds with its varied programme of singers, dancers, acrobats, musicians, and comedians, and promotional cabinet cards like this one were a standard tool for performers on the circuit. Alfred Poole operated at multiple addresses along The Crescent in Morecambe and was an established presence in the Lancashire photographic trade throughout the late Victorian and Edwardian eras.

Inscribed in pencil on the reverse: "Richard Wadeson Aged 44 in 1901 living at Ince in Makerfield, Lancs, Music Hall Artist. (Born Wigan, Lancs)." Photographer's imprint on reverse reads "Photographed by Alfred Poole, Over 20 Years in Morecambe."