Artist (or Assistant) with Pipe

1853–1857

Frank Chauvassaignes

(French)

Culture

France, 19th century

Medium

salt print from wet collodion negative

Measurements

Image: 21 x 15.7 cm (8 1/4 x 6 3/16 in.); Mounted: 30.5 x 23.5 cm (12 x 9 1/4 in.); Matted: 50.8 x 40.6 cm (20 x 16 in.)

Credit Line

John L. Severance Fund 1998.174

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Location

Not on view

Description

Frank Chauvassaignes' portrait is an outstanding example of compositional and technical achievement in early French photography. A handsome young painter, outfitted for work in the studio in a rumpled smock, appears to be caught in a moment of introspection, pipe in hand. The camera's lowered position gives the sitter a dignified air. In this formally balanced portrait, the photographer captured not only the sitter's physical likeness, but also his state of mind. Chauvassaignes, a photographer with a trained and sophisticated eye, lived in Clermont-Ferrand, a city in central France, and was a member of the Société française de photographie. To date, little information has been found about this artist and his small, though remarkable, body of known images