Portraits from the first 100 years of photography
If you've already looked at the previous post, Jeanne Fouillon and her beautiful harp, then you've already seen the portrait above. When I put that post together last week, I hadn't yet tried to identify the dignified gentleman with the harp. It seemed like a long shot, but one that might be worth a try. ... Continue Reading →
Is there any instrument as angelic to the ear and eye as the harp? I had hoped to find a reference to Jeanne Fouillon online, but haven't succeeded so far. Her harp is certainly very graceful and beautiful to the eye. The carte-de-visite was made by Augustin Michel in Grenoble, France, around 1890. Jeanne's... Continue Reading →
This carte-de-visite isn't the first wedding photograph on the blog, but it's the first portrait of a bride and groom without attendants. For some reason I've been slow to appreciate wedding portraits as a genre, so I haven't bought many over the years. I found this one in January while doing research for an earlier... Continue Reading →
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... Continue Reading →
Here's another occupational carte-de-visite from England. It looks like an early one, maybe early 1870s. At the mouth of the River Tyne on the North Sea, South Shields was a major shipbuilding center from the 1850s onward. The photo was taken in an industrial setting, possibly a shipyard, by a photographer from the studio of... Continue Reading →
This carte-de-visite may have been made at High Brooms Brick and Tile Company, founded in 1885 in Southborough, Kent, England. It's hard to tell what the father is sitting on, but we can see he's wearing gaiters of some sort below the knees, probably to keep his legs dry or clean. The photographer is identified on... Continue Reading →
It was relatively rare for women in Britain and North America to set up their own commercial studios in the nineteenth century. In Scandinavia, in contrast, women seem to have embraced the business of photography from the earliest days and to have enjoyed commercial success on a par with their male counterparts. This topic has... Continue Reading →
This carte-de-visite was made by Jacob Lundbergh (1828-1904) in Stockholm. According to his Swedish Wikipedia page, he worked as a professional photographer for eleven years (1861-1872), becoming famous for his portraits of actors, singers and other cultural figures. His brother, Bernhard Lundbergh, was an opera singer with the Royal Theater.
These two young men may have been students at a military academy or members of a cadet corps, which was another type of officer-training program. They're both wearing a military-style tunic with no insignia. It's also possible the tunic was part of a uniform at an educational institution not connected to the military. I'll update... Continue Reading →
I had never heard of Jean Ingelow before I saw this carte-de-visite, but her pose and expression charmed me. It was made by the studio of Elliott & Fry in London, where she lived. The daughter of an English banker father and a Scottish mother, she was the oldest of ten children. Jean Ingelow (1820-1897)... Continue Reading →
This carte-de-visite was made by the studio of Albert Baron & César Mitkewicz in Brussels (Bruxelles), Belgium. The mother's gaze engages the viewer while the father's seems unfocused. The two sisters pose affectionately as the younger one reads from a book.
This CDV came from the town of Kettering in England. My guess would be that it belonged originally to a family associated with a British diplomatic mission in the Middle East or North Africa. India is also a possibility.
