Portrait of the Actor Pierre Bocage and Friend (c. 1860): Art, History and Details

Portrait of the Actor Pierre Bocage and Friend (c. 1860) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Jean-Baptiste Émile (Eugène) Colliau (French, 1826–1884).

The work and its context

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

Unlike the nearby two theatrical portraits, which show the actors in character, Bocage is shown as himself. Known by the stage name Bocage, Pierre-Martinien Tousez was a star of the Comédie-Française. Here he poses with a younger friend whose identity is unknown. Physical contact and gestures of affection between men are common in 19th- and early 20th-century photographs. They are most widely read as expressions of friendship, although some contemporary scholars suggest that a portion of these portraits could be coded expressions of romantic relationships.

Object facts

• Title: Portrait of the Actor Pierre Bocage and Friend
• Date: c. 1860
• Creator attribution: Jean-Baptiste Émile (Eugène) Colliau (French, 1826–1884)
• Culture: France, 19th century
• Type: Photograph
• Technique: albumen print from wet collodion negative
• Dimensions: Image: 24.1 x 17.8 cm (9 1/2 x 7 in.); Mounted: 45.1 x 30.1 cm (17 3/4 x 11 7/8 in.); Matted: 50.8 x 40.6 cm (20 x 16 in.)
• Collection: Photography
• Department: Photography
• Accession number: 1999.21

Collection credit

John L. Severance Fund

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.