Portret van Jules Claretie 1865 - 1880

Curator: Here we have a gelatin silver print, "Portret van Jules Claretie," made sometime between 1865 and 1880 by Georges Mathurin Legé. The print quality renders such delicate details. Editor: There's a somber air to it, wouldn’t you say? A contemplative gaze, almost melancholy. The oval format constricts him, making him feel boxed in. Curator: Yes, and consider the context. Jules Claretie was a prominent literary figure, a journalist and later a director of the Comédie-Française. His success, of course, comes from standing on others’ labor and marginalizing their contributions. But Legé, less well-known today, created this portrait to represent him. How are we meant to reckon with this photograph now? Editor: And consider the materiality – gelatin silver prints like this were becoming a standardized commodity by this period, rapidly democratizing image production. It would have taken a photographic studio and the hands of possibly anonymous laborers to develop this single picture of one celebrated figure. How are they tied to this print? What significance does Claretie's role in society have compared to those whose hands may have contributed to his lasting image? Curator: Exactly. The rise of photographic portraiture coincides with changing social hierarchies. Who got their portrait taken and why is important. Claretie’s serious expression conveys a sense of intellectual authority but does it mask his politics? The image freezes his privilege at this very moment. Editor: Yet it's fascinating to see this collision of the rise of a material practice—photography— and a specific individual. Legé’s decision to use gelatin silver, versus other processes, and the tonal range he achieved, reflect choices. Choices which ultimately construct a narrative about celebrity at a precise moment in technological and social history. Curator: The stark realism speaks volumes, both about its subject and the social fabric it reinforces, however unwittingly. The lens freezes gendered, raced hierarchies and power structures of the era that resonate even now. It forces us to see him, but to also to see *through* him. Editor: Yes, it makes us think about not just *who* is represented, but also *how* images like these circulated, contributing to a growing image-based culture with profound material consequences.