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Portrait of Jean Rion

Creator

Swiss Daguerreotypist · 1775–1863

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

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Date: about 1850
Medium: Daguerreotype
Culture: Swiss
Department: Photographs
Institution: Getty Museum

Jean Rion, Jean-Gabriel Eynard's longtime valet, was the only one of his servants to become the sole subject of a formal portrait. Eynard probably singled him out in recognition of his work as Eynard's capable daguerreotypy assistant. Rion painstakingly prepared the plates and often performed the last-minute chemical procedures essential to the process, and removed and replaced the lens cap, which marked the beginning and end of the exposure. In this portrait, Eynard captured Rion's modest, serious, and thoughtful demeanor.

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