Paul Frecker In the 1870's, the Paris printer Auguste Giraudon advertised that he had commissioned a painter who wished to remain anonymous to produce a series of artist's studies. The Millet-like photographs that subsequently appeared were probably that series, and it is more than likely that they were taken near Barbizon. The photography is marked by slight technical faults, which may indeed suggest a painter turned amateur photographer. There is a strong spirit of Barbizon and of the paysanne in these images and the occasional blurring of figures carrying their loads is evocative of Impressionism.
[Source: Ken Jacobson's Etudes d'Apres Nature, 1996.]
