| |
Hippolyte Bayard
[Chair and watering can in a garden]
[Dessins photographiques sur Papier. Recueil No. 2. (ms. cover title) [The "Bayard Album"]]
1843-1847 (ca)
Salted paper print, from a Calotype negative
16.5 × 12.7 cm (6 1/2 × 5 in.)
J. Paul Getty Museum
Object Number: 84.XO.968.85
LL/124864
Hippolyte Bayard frequently photographed himself and others in garden settings. This was, in part, a practical decision since natural light was required to make photographs at the time. However, his choice of setting also reflects his passion for plants. He came from a family of gardeners—his maternal grandfather worked in the extensive grounds of the abbey in Breteuil, the village where Bayard grew up. His father, a justice of the peace, was a passionate amateur gardener who grew peaches in an orchard attached to the family home. The garden(s) featured in Bayard’s self-portraits may indeed be part of the family property in Breteuil or his own home in Batignolles—an area that was just on the outskirts of Paris.
This image of a garden scene is part of an album that Bayard compiled in the 1840s and is now owned by the Getty Museum. One of his self-portraits can be found on a separate page in the same album (see 84.XO.968.20). The only differences in the two compositions are that this image is taken from a slightly more distant view with an additional pot and watering can in place of the man. Perhaps this photograph was a study in preparation for his self-portrait.
Carolyn Peter, J. Paul Getty Museum, Department of Photograph
2019
| |
LuminousLint 
@LuminousLint