Getty Museum
Portrait of Victor Cousin
Creator
Gustave Le GrayFrench Photographer · 1820–1884
All works by this person →Though he was trained as a painter, Gustave Le Gray made his mark in the emerging medium of photography. An experimenter and technical innovator, Le Gray pioneered the use of the paper negative in France and developed a waxed-paper negative that produced sharper-focus prints. In 1851 he began to use collodion on glass negatives, which further increased the clarity of his images. He became one of t
More on Getty ULAN- Date
- 1854–1859
- Medium
- Albumen silver print from a glass negative
- Culture
- French
- Department
- Photographs
- Institution
- Getty Museum
Looking out from Le Gray's photograph, Victor Cousin appears intent on being seen as serious, though perhaps he was simply suspicious of the process that fixed his image for posterity. A popular, influential professor and lecturer and later a reforming government minister, the distinguished philosopher must be considered one of Le Gray's most eminent sitters. Cousin was well into his sixties when this photograph was made, and his somewhat disheveled appearance advertises his status as an elderly bachelor. His clothing is wrinkled, and patterned fabric untidily extrudes between his vest and trousers. The hand tucked dramatically into his vest hides the lens of his monocle, with the cord barely visible underneath. Through retouching the negative, Le Gray tried to simplify Cousin's silhouette by eliminating the back of the chair on which he sat; its traces remain, however, interrupting the otherwise smooth line of the right shoulder.
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