[HUGO] CHALOT, Alphonse (1841-1893)

[HUGO] CHALOT, Alphonse (1841-1893)

Photographic portrait of Victor Hugo
[Paris], c. 1880, cabinet format, on thick cardboard (slightly concave) 
Print: 14.2 × 10.5 cm
Mount: 16.4 × 10.8 cm
Photographer’s credit in the lower margin of the mount
Minor surface imperfections, very small damage to the upper corners of the mount
Slightly later print

Very fine portrait of the poet, in the twilight of his life

Victor Hugo is captured here in the twilight years of his life, around 1880. His melancholic gaze is directed to his left, as if momentarily distracted by something at the time of the sitting. Beyond his ever-present frock coat, he wears a straight-cut waistcoat that encloses a turned-down collar shirt and a white ribbon tie. A watch chain is visible, which can also be seen in many other portraits of him from the late 1870s.

Alphonse Chalot maintained his studio at 18, rue Vivienne in Paris, a prominent center for publishing and photography at the time. After his death, the portraitist Georges Camus succeeded him.

Print with perfect contrast