Portrait of Edmond Cottinet (1824-1895) (c. 1848–50): Art, History and Details

Portrait of Edmond Cottinet (1824-1895) (c. 1848–50) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Gustave Le Gray (French, 1820–1884).

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

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.

Object facts

• Title: Portrait of Edmond Cottinet (1824-1895)
• Date: c. 1848–50
• Creator attribution: Gustave Le Gray (French, 1820–1884)
• Culture: France, 19th century
• Type: Photograph
• Technique: salted paper print from a paper negative
• Dimensions: 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.)
• Collection: PH - French 19th Century
• Department: Photography
• Accession number: 1998.73

Collection credit

Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• Hinson, Tom E. "The Monet of Photography." Cleveland Art: Cleveland Museum of Art Members Magazine 45, no. 4 (April 2005): 6-8.

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.