We can see from this scene that parents have overreacted to teenage behavior since at least the 1850s. A girl and a boy lounge in the grass. A basket of wildflowers lies at the girl’s feet. The boy innocently offers her a small bouquet. Meanwhile, the girl’s father discovers them and charges through the bushes with a rake, looking rather upset. Parents can be so uptight!
This carte-de-visite was made by the studio of Furne Fils & H. Tournier in Paris. The partners were Charles Furne (1794-1859), his son Charles Paul Furne (1824-1880), and Henri Alexis Omer Tournier. The J. Paul Getty Museum has a small collection of stereographs made by the studio, mostly landscape views, which date to 1858-1861. The Art Institute of Chicago has two CDVs which the museum’s website says were made between 1860 and 1869, after the senior Furne had died. Interestingly, one of those prints is an artistic likeness of Abraham Lincoln, reproduced from a painting or drawing.
That rake looks somewhat lethal. There was a trend for ‘posed’ photographs as artistic representations of life, or as social comment. Photography is so endlessly fascinating in all its variety, so keep up the good work.
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I’d be afraid of that rake!! The images made for social commentary can be quite interesting, giving us a peek into what people were thinking at the time. This image seems to have been made purely for entertainment. Thanks so much for the encouragement!
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I think fathers know only too well what the urges of young men are like. I don’t blame him for being uptight! Having said this, it is a wonderful and amusing image!
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Haha, thank you! I think the photographer and actors were just having fun when they made this, so I couldn’t approach it too seriously. The man and his rake make me smile every time. The kids don’t look concerned about him at all.
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Oh yes, I agree that this picture seems made for entertainment. It almost seems to reference frothy French 18th century paintings–Boucher, maybe? The girl’s dress and her little hat, the flowers in the basket–even the father’s clothes.
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You’re right, Carol! Fragonard comes to mind, since his paintings often contained humor along with the frothy elements, which are of course great fun in themselves.
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This sort of scene has been the stuff of comedy for ages. I wouldn’t be surprised if the Romans had done it! The couple does look a bit posed, but the guy ‘playing’ the parent is clearly getting into it – look at the expression on his face!
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I love his expression! You’re probably right about the Romans. Isn’t it interesting that humor can be timeless? In superficial ways, human civilization has changed so much, but human beings aren’t any different now than we ever were. Our environment has changed, and the amount of information available to us, but biologically we’re no different from the Romans, or even the hunter-gatherers before them.
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“Oh no, father’s gardener has seen us!” 🙂
Fun photo – obviously meant as an entertaining postcard.
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Ha, I love this! Humour with a message…!
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