[AFFAIRE DREYFUS] Alfred DREYFUS (1859-1935)

[AFFAIRE DREYFUS] Alfred DREYFUS (1859-1935)

Period film print with autograph inscription signed
N.p.n.d [c. 1910], cabinet format (14,7 x 9,8 cm)
Glued on thick cardboard (16,5 x 10,8) in the photographer’s credit – Studio Gerschel
Some browning, pencil noted (by an unknown hand) on the verso

Famous portrait of Captain Alfred Dreyfus in artilleryman’s uniform and enriched with a signed autograph inscription

This portrait is the most famous of Alfred Dreyfus’ iconography. Taken by Aron Gerschel (1832-1907), a photographer at the École Polytechnique, he had set up his photographic studio at 23 boulevard des Capucine (only a stone’s throw from the Nadar studio which was located at number 35), before moving to 5 rue de Prony, in Paris.
Dreyfus appears in his captain’s uniform, half-torso three-quarters to the right. He wears a military kepi with three stripes, a jacket with toggles and small glasses. Aged about 34, this portrait was probably taken during the year 1893, when Dreyfus was called up on January 1 as a trainee on the army staff at the Ministry of War. This portrait therefore precedes by a few weeks or a few months at most the trial, the condemnation and the degradation of Captain Dreyfus.

There are three known variants of this portrait. Very concerned about the image he reflected of himself, it was probably Dreyfus who asked Gerschel to make subtle alterations. We can thus observe that Dreyfus’s moustache is slightly fuller here and that the button of the left epaulette below his chin has not been removed by Gerschel.

Dreyfus’ autograph bears the inscription: “To M. Albert Bonneau / Heartfelt thanks for his touching sympathy / Alfred Dreyfus”
Famous for his adventure novels, Albert Bonneau collected letters from a very young age. His sympathy for Captain Dreyfus was not the result of a simple impromptu request. Bonneau is the dedicatee of at least one other portrait of the captain. We also know of several epistolary exchanges between the two men.