The Cleveland Museum of Art
Collection Online as of April 23, 2024
Matra Reinhard
1868
(French, 1807–1876)
Image: 17.2 x 12.3 cm (6 3/4 x 4 13/16 in.); Mounted: 37.5 x 28.2 cm (14 3/4 x 11 1/8 in.); Matted: 45.7 x 35.6 cm (18 x 14 in.)
John L. Severance Fund 1999.114
Location: not on view
Description
These striking portraits of working-class girls were made as ethnographic or artistic studies of types. Potteau’s photograph was part of an anthropological series the naturalist produced for the National Museum of Natural History in Paris. Employing the standard commercial portrait studio conventions of the time, he carefully posed his subject in an even light. However, instead of a painted backdrop, Potteau used a plain background as if shooting a scientific specimen. On the mount he recorded her biographical data: her name, that she was born in Paris to parents from Bohemia five years ago, and that she stands three and a half feet tall.- Cheating Death: Portrait Photography’s First Half Century. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (October 22, 2016-February 5, 2017).19th-Century French Portrait Photography from the Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (May 27-August 9, 2000).
- {{cite web|title=Matra Reinhard|url=false|author=Jacques-Philippe Potteau|year=1868|access-date=23 April 2024|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}
Source URL:
https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1999.114