Getty Museum
Self-Portrait
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
- 1850
- Medium
- Daguerreotype
- Culture
- Swiss
- Department
- Photographs
- Institution
- Getty Museum
Unlike most of his contemporaries of 1850, Jean-Gabriel Eynard was accustomed to posing for the camera, always under his own direction. There are no known photographic portraits of Eynard by another photographer. In this self-portrait, he appears substantially at ease, sitting rather casually with his legs apart, his knees uneven, and his right arm draped over the chair. His sparkling eyes express his lively intelligence, and only the upright carriage of his head and the stiff gesture of his left hand, reminiscent of a pose often assumed by Napoleon, betray the stillness necessary for a crisp daguerreotype.
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