Recommended position for having a perfect daguerreotype portrait taken
Series TitleLes Bons Bourgeois
Original Language TitlePosition réputée la plus commode pour avoir un joli portrait au daguerréotype
Artist
Honoré Daumier
(French, 1808 - 1879)
Printer
Aubert & Co.
(French)
Publisher
Aubert & Co.
(French)
Date1847
MediumLithograph
DimensionsSheet: 14 1/16 × 9 13/16 inches (35.71 × 24.97 cm)
Credit LineGift of the Hall Family Foundation
Object number2017.68.299
SignedInitialed and numbered on original image recto, lower right, in black pencil: "h.D. 272";
On sheet recto, upper right, in black type: "No. 49.";
On sheet recto, bottom, in black type: "Imp. d'Aubert. & Cie", "Chez Aubert & Cie.Pl. de la Bourse."
InscribedTitled on sheet recto, top, in black type: "LES BONS BOURGEOIS.";
On sheet recto, bottom, in black type: "Position réputée la plus commode pour avoir un joli portrait au Daguerréotype." [Translation: Recommended position for having a perfect Daguerreotype portrait taken.]
MarkingsOn sheet recto, lower right corner, in pencil: "Juillet 1847";
On sheet verso, upper right corner, in pencil: "CAR16/15".
On View
Not on viewCollections
DescriptionIllustration published in Le Charivari of man having his portrait taken on an outdoor patio. He is wearing a suit with his right hand tucked inside of his vest while his head is held still with a clamp. The photographer is hidden under a dark cloth behind the camera and a small potted plant rests beside the sitter.Gallery LabelPainter, printmaker, and illustrator Honoré Daumier gained notoriety for his satirical cartoons of mid-1800s French politics and society. His lithographs often poked fun at the new technology of photography and the middle-class society that embraced it. Published in the satirical French illustrated magazine Le Charivari, Daumier depicts photographic portraiture as stiff, formulaic, and requiring little skill. In this cartoon, he specifically highlights the awkward clamping devices used to prevent sitters from moving during the photographic exposure.
Gérard Lévy (1934-2016), Paris, France;
Purchased at his posthumous sale, Gérard Lévy, Photographies de Collection II, Millon, Paris, June 16, 2017, lot 14 by Vintage Works, Ltd., Chalfont, PA, 2017;
Purchased from him by the Hall Family Foundation, Kansas City, MO, 2017;
Their gift to The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, 2017.
Purchased at his posthumous sale, Gérard Lévy, Photographies de Collection II, Millon, Paris, June 16, 2017, lot 14 by Vintage Works, Ltd., Chalfont, PA, 2017;
Purchased from him by the Hall Family Foundation, Kansas City, MO, 2017;
Their gift to The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, 2017.
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