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332 OUR FRENCH CORRESPONDENT.
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
O- Paris, Dec. 19, 1861. The Artistic Th...
is liexe displayed were complete and utter failures . The just proportions of the thing * or person represented in photographs of
extraordinary magnitude have been found impossible to preserve . The demi-tints did not come out ; the shadows were like so many
blotches ; and the lights were incapable of producing , with the shades , that modelled look peculiar to the uncolored photographappearing
as they did , like great white spots . Disderi ' s gigantic , pictures in , this genre are extraordinary as they are novel to the Parisians ,
being * as perfect in execution as the most perfectly executed carte de visite . The method by which he attains such astonishing
results is given to all who choose to buy a catalogue on entering the salons of the Jockey Club during the present week . " To
reproduc sary / 3 e says living he nature " that in the all op her eration beaut of y p and hotograp vivacit hing y , it the is neces model
-, should be done instantaneously , and almost with electrical rapidity . _Otherwisethe gestures of the bodyor the fleeting expressions
, , of the countenance cannot be faithfully transferred to paper . " It is equally necessary that the distance of the apparatus from
the model should be considerable , in order that the effects of an exaggerated perspective may not interfere with harmony of
proportion . These conditions can only . be arrived at by means of cliches " of very small dimensions ; and in obtaining portraits of full-length
size , enlarging these " cliches" by means of the solar chamber . One of the greatest advantages of Disderi's method isthat to obtain
a full-size portrait one needs only to send him , a smaller one , which musthoweverbe done on paper . Care should be also taken
, , that it is perfectly free from spots , and in every way satisfactory , otherwise the effect of the large portrait will be the reverse of
pleasing , as magnifying all the blemishes of the small one . Some of these enormous photographs are not so good as others .
As in every other undertaking , blind Fortune seems to influence tlie photographic processand to play strange pranks with the negative ;
, it happens not unfrequently that the operator draws from his instrumentalternatelya bad and a good likeness . Disderi is more
, , fortunate than this ; two-thirds of all which he exhibits are pronounced to be wonderful—and the remainder are something above
mediocrity . The chefs _d'osuvres are the likenesses of the Grand Duchesses Constantino and Michael , of Russia ; the Emperor ; the
Empress , in a Spanish costume , which becomes her , more than any other ; the Princess Anna Murat , dressed as Diana Vernon , and
riding a magnificent Arabian steed , presented to her by his Imperial Majesty ; the fat , muscular , and thorouglily Bonapartean .
Prince , Pierre Bonaparte , who is at the same time all that his picture represents him—painterpoetand _23 hilosoplier ; M . Guizot ;
, , the Duchess Dowager of Alba ; and Madame Suzanne Lagier , whose portrait was last summer pronounced to be the most
attractive . in the biennial fine arts exhibition held in the Palais de
VIndustrie . Some of these portraits have the severe air of an
332 Our French Correspondent.
332 OUR FRENCH CORRESPONDENT .
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Citation
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English Woman’s Journal (1858-1864), Jan. 1, 1862, page 332, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/ewj/issues/ewj_01011862/page/44/
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