Getty Museum
Self-Portrait with a Folio Volume
Creator
Jean-Gabriel EynardSwiss Daguerreotypist · 1775–1863
All works by this person →Jean-Gabriel Eynard was a wealthy amateur photographer who made photographs chiefly for his own amusement. He learned the daguerreotype process in Paris in the early 1840s, not long after the invention of the process was announced in 1839. His financial independence afforded him the time and ability to practice photography, which in its infancy was an expensive pastime and difficult to master. Ass
More on Getty ULAN- Date
- about 1845
- Medium
- Daguerreotype
- Culture
- Swiss
- Department
- Photographs
- Institution
- Getty Museum
In this self-portrait, Swiss daguerreotypist Jean-Gabriel Eynard imagined himself as a subject in an Old Master painting. Hunched over the large volume in seated profile, Eynard probably drew upon Dutch painting as a source to create this image. The image of a saint reading occurs frequently in Rembrandt van Rijn's paintings, etchings, and drawings, which Eynard had seen. The debt to this painterly tradition is especially evident in the way the light appears to emanate from the open book.
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