Paintings : 8
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PaintingA Photograph of Empress Eugenie in Prayer (1856)
During the summer of 1856, photographer Gustave Le Gray (1820-1884) made several portraits of the Empress Eugenie at the Palace of Saint-Cloud; she had given birth to the Prince Imperial a few months earlier (on 16 March). The idea behind the photos was to assist fellow artist Thomas Couture (1815-1879) in his composition of a […]
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PaintingPhotograph: Ruins of the Tuileries Palace, Grand Vestibule and Place du Carrousel (May 1871)The Palais des Tuileries A few months after the fall of the Second Empire and the establishment of the Third Republic, Paris, the so-called City of Light, was lit up by the fires of a popular insurrection. The Communards [e.g. the Parisian insurgents], knowing they were…
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PaintingA photographic portrait of Comte Émilien de Nieuwerkerke (1811-1892), intendant des Beaux-Arts (1853), honorary chamberlain of the Emperor (1859)
It was the job of photographer Léon Crémière (1831-1913) to photograph the members of the “Maison de l’Empereur” [the Emperor’s Household], and the shot here is his magnificent portrait (1861) of Émilien de Nieuwerkerke, an essential figure in the artistic life of the Second Empire, who at the time had been intendant des Beaux-Arts since […]
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Painting[Paul “Nadar” and two members of the Japanese embassy 1862]
Franco-Japanese relations After being closed to European power for several centuries, Japan in the 1850s faced extreme pressure to open her ports to foreign shipping. A first treaty with the US in March/May 1854 (Convention of Kanagawa) was followed swiftly by treaties with European powers, namely Britain (the Anglo-Japanese Friendship Treaty of October 1854), Russia […]
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Painting“Scherzo di Follia” (a photographic portrait of the Countess of Castiglione)
This portrait of the Countess of Castiglione has become emblematic of the history of photographic art and more specifically of self-portraiture. The personality of its subject, “la Castiglione”, has contributed to its fascination, which has not diminished over the years, continuing to inspire a multitude of questions and hypotheses as to the reasons for the […]
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PaintingTwo views of the Palais des Tuileries, 1855-1858
These two photographs taken by Édouard Baldus are interesting for three reasons. First, they are visual evidence for buildings that are long gone; second, they show the last phase of work on the Louvre; and third, they reveal the advances in photographic technique used by the photographer. As for the joining of the […]
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PaintingPhotograph of Prince-President Louis-Napoleon Bonaparte
On 11 December 1848, Louis-Napoleon Bonaparte was elected (the first, and only) President of the Second Republic, by universal male suffrage. It was from the Elysée-National (the Elysée Palace, chosen by the Assembly to be the official residence of the President of the Republic) that the future Emperor prepared the coup d’etat of 2 December […]
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PaintingPrincess Clotilde and her son Victor
A great defender of the “principe des nationalités” (the “nationality principle”, which encompasses the general idea that State and Nation should correspond), Napoleon III threw his support behind the unification process – initiated by the Victor-Emmanuel II, King of Piedmont-Sardinia – which was to take place on the Italian peninsula. This support was given official […]