Mother with Two Children, c. 1855. After his antigovernment political activity closed off his professional opportunities as a painter, Frénet took up photography in 1850 and a decade later opened a commercial portrait studio. He preferred simple, plain settings and relied on sitters’ interactions to reveal their personalities and relationships. This family grouping, probably taken for personal pleasure, offers a sense of casual immediacy unusual for the time in both painted and photographic portraiture.

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Size: 5245px × 7162px
Photo credit: © Heritage Art/Heritage Images / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No

Keywords: 1814-1889, 19th, art, century, cleveland, collodion, france, french, frénet, heritage, jean-baptist, museum, negative, paper, photograph, print, salted