Getty Museum

[Chair and Watering Can in a Garden]

Date

about 1843–1847

Medium

Salted paper print from a Calotype negative

Culture

French

Department

Photographs

Institution

Getty Museum

Object ID

c65e2f1b-fe12-4fa6-a89c-6e9780eb3de9

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](https://www.getty.edu/art/collection/objects/101944/hippolyte-bayard-self-portrait-in-garden-french-about-1845-1849/)). 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

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