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Lot Essay
This elegant nude study is part of a series of images that French photographer and lawyer Eugène Durieu created in 1853–1854, working with models posed by the renowned painter Eugène Delacroix. The grace of the pose and soft rendition of the skin exemplifies the sensuality achieved by French Romantic painters such as Delacroix, Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres and Théodore Géricault.
As a pioneer of photography in France, Durieu began making daguerreotypes in the 1840s and later became a member of the Commission des Monuments Historiques. While there, Durieu was instrumental in the organization of the important Missions Héliographiques that in 1851 sent renown photographers Edouard Baldus, Charles Marville, Gustave Le Gray, Henri Le Secq, among others, to document the architecture of France.
Another print of this image resides in the collection of the J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles.
As a pioneer of photography in France, Durieu began making daguerreotypes in the 1840s and later became a member of the Commission des Monuments Historiques. While there, Durieu was instrumental in the organization of the important Missions Héliographiques that in 1851 sent renown photographers Edouard Baldus, Charles Marville, Gustave Le Gray, Henri Le Secq, among others, to document the architecture of France.
Another print of this image resides in the collection of the J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles.