[The Artist, His Mother, and Friends in Fishing Garb]

Olympe Aguado de las Marismas

ca. 1860 · Albumen silver print from glass negative · Photographs

The photographer Count Olympe Aguado de las Marismas was a wealthy aristocrat and a familiar figure at the court of Napoleon III. At an informal gathering at one of his country houses, Aguado posed his family and friends as fishermen, complete with long poles, a fine net, and foul-weather gear made of oilcloth. Although her elegant printed dress peaks out from below her rain jacket, the artist's mother seems well disposed for a soggy jaunt to the local trout stream. The photograph exemplifies the striking maturity and confidence, both technical and aesthetic, achieved by the medium's finest practitioners in its second decade.

Artist

Olympe Aguado de las Marismas

Date

ca. 1860

Medium

Albumen silver print from glass negative

Department

Photographs

Credit line

Gilman Collection, Gift of The Howard Gilman Foundation, 2005