DORÉ, Gustave (1832-1883)

DORÉ, Gustave (1832-1883)

Period albumen print
[Paris], after 1866, cdv format (5,6 x 9 cm)
Mounted on thick cardboard (6 x 10,5 cm)
Photographer credit on lower margin, and verso: Georges-Mathurin Legé and Sosthène Bergeron-Danguy [Carjat & Cie]
Good condition throughout, except for a few minute spots

Rare autograph by the artist, on both sides of the mounting, on one of his finest portraits

Autograph dedication on the recto: “GuDoré”
Autograph dedication on the verso: “A thousand eager thanks to the person who honors me by attaching some value to this sample of my poor handwriting / GDoré”

Dressed in a three-piece suit topped with an elegant overcoat, Doré assumes the posture of a dandy: one hand slipped into his pocket, his gaze directed toward the horizon, captured in a medium-long shot. Beneath this air of ease, he appears caught in the moment, as if engaged in conversation. This spontaneity lends the print a striking modernity, breaking with the rigid conventions of 19th-century portraiture. Another pose from the same session is known.

Nice contrasts.

This portrait must date from after 1866. After moving into his first studio at 56 Rue Lafitte in Paris in 1861, Carjat soon faced financial difficulties and disputes with his associates Georges-Mathurin Legé and Sosthène Bergeron-Danguy. In 1866, he was forced to sell them his studio and his business assets. Legé and Bergeron then used an embossed stamp retaining Carjat’s name, with their own added.