The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of March 29, 2024

Portrait of Edmond Cottinet (1824-1895)

Portrait of Edmond Cottinet (1824-1895)

c. 1848–50
(French, 1820–1884)
Image: 20.5 x 13.9 cm (8 1/16 x 5 1/2 in.); Matted: 61 x 50.8 cm (24 x 20 in.)
Location: not on view

Description

A painter by trade, Le Gray took up photography in 1847 and became a master of light-filled landscapes and seascapes. His early portraits depict his social circle of artists and writers, including his friend and neighbor the playwright Cottinet. He is portrayed here as if in a reverie, perhaps composing a new play in his head. This effect is partly created by the low shooting angle and isolation of the subject in a corner between two bare walls, a rare and casual approach for the time. Posing subjects this way would become a standard ploy for the famed 20th-century photographer Irving Penn, although it is highly unlikely he ever saw this work.
  • French private collection
  • Cheating Death: Portrait Photography’s First Half Century. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (October 22, 2016-February 5, 2017).
    France at the Dawn of Photography. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (October 4, 2009-January 24, 2010).
    Drawn with Light: Pioneering French Photography from the Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (February 26-June 16, 2005).
    Galeries Mansart and Mazarine, Richelieu, France, March 19 - June 16, 2002: "Gustave Le Gray, 1820-1884." Aubenas, Sylvie. Gustave Le Gray, 1820-1884 (Gallimard: Bibliothèque nationale de France, 2002). (Also exhibited at The Getty Museum, Los Angeles, July 9 - Sept. 29, 2002). Catalogue no. 58, p. 55, repr. p. 55.
    19th-Century French Portrait Photography from the Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (May 27-August 9, 2000).
  • {{cite web|title=Portrait of Edmond Cottinet (1824-1895)|url=false|author=Gustave Le Gray|year=c. 1848–50|access-date=29 March 2024|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1998.73