[Seated Lady in Striped Dress with Four Little Girls]

Franz Antoine

1850s–60s · Coated salted paper print from glass negative · Photographs

During his tenure as director of the Royal Gardens to the Austrian Imperial Court, Antoine’s love of horticulture and the arts conflated in the modern medium of photography. Known for his close-up studies of plant forms, he also used the verdant garden as a lush backdrop for portraiture. Antoine here photographs a mother and her four daughters, sumptuously dressed in matching striped dresses, hats, and fingerless lace gloves. While the family is his main focus, Antoine pays close attention to the subjects’ surroundings, choosing the perfect moment to capture the light softly filtering through the leaves.

Artist

Franz Antoine

Date

1850s–60s

Medium

Coated salted paper print from glass negative

Department

Photographs

Credit line

David Hunter McAlpin Fund, 1948