Photograph by Onésipe Aguado de las Marismas
Woman Seen from the Back is an 1860s photograph by 19th-century French photographer, Vicomte Onesipe Aguado de las Marismas (French, Évry 1830–1893 Paris).[1] It is in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art ,[2] and was purchased by the Museum in 2005 as part of the Gilman Photographs Collection.[3]
Early history and creation [ edit ] Onesipe, Self Portrait with his Brother, Olympe Aquado Onesipe Aguado, born May 9, 1830, in Évry , France was the youngest of three brothers born to the wealthy banker Alexandre Aguado, marquis de las Marismas del Guadalquiver. Onesipe and his oldest brother Olympe Aquado were amateur enthusiasts who split their time between socialite activities, a close family life, and photography. Upon their father's death in 1842, Onesipe and Olympe inherited a considerable fortune that included vacation homes.[4]
Onesipe and Olympe were students of Gustave Le Gray , and were active early members of the Societe Francaise de Photographie . They were early makers of photographic enlargements and known for their experimentations with photographic processes —producing daguerreotypes , cartes-des-visites , techniques with negative paper for landscapes and collodion on glass for portraits.[4] They were also known for the diversity of their subjects—deserted interiors, close studies of trees as well as sweeping pastorals, portraits, reproductions of works of arts and snapshots of sailboats.
Description and interpretation [ edit ] The portrait, Woman Seen from the Back, a salted paper print from glass negative, suggests the wit and playfulness of its photographer. The image is devoid of depth, possibly an extension of the artists' work on foreshortening , making the sitter appear two dimensional and merely a silhouette.[1]
Later history and influence [ edit ] Aquado's unique composition of his subject—that focuses on the subject's back, is also seen in the 1818 painting, Wanderer above the Sea of Fog by Caspar David Friedrich and later, in 1928, in La Mort des Fantômes [5] (1928) by René Magritte .
The photograph illustrated the front cover of the 1999 Susan Sontag novel, In America .
References [ edit ]
Places
Directors Miscellaneous Antiquities Paintings 1476 Altarpiece A Cavalryman A Vase of Flowers (1716) The Abduction of Rebecca The Accommodations of Desire The Actor (painting) Adoration of the Magi (Bosch, New York) Adoration of the Shepherds (Mantegna) The Aegean Sea The Afternoon Meal (Luis Meléndez) Alexander Hamilton (Trumbull) The Allegory of Faith Allegory of the Planets and Continents Alpine Pool Altman Madonna America Today Ancient Rome (painting) Annunciation (Memling) Annunziata Polyptych Anthony van Dyck self portrait Approaching Thunder Storm Arab Woman (watercolor) Arcadia (painting) Ariadne (Giorgio de Chirico) Aristotle with a Bust of Homer Artillery (Roger de la Fresnaye) The Artist's Wife and His Setter Dog At the Seaside Au Lapin Agile Autumn Ivy (Ogata Kenzan) Autumn Rhythm (Number 30) Bache Madonna Bain à la Grenouillère The Baker's Cart The Banks of the Bièvre near Bicêtre Banquet in Silence (Marsden Hartley) Bashi-Bazouk (Jean-Léon Gérôme) A Basket of Clams (Winslow Homer) Beauty Revealed Black Iris (painting) Black Stork in a Landscape Boating (Édouard Manet) Annunciation (Botticelli, New York) Bouquet of Small Chrysanthemums (Léon Bonvin) Boy Carrying a Sword The Bridge at Villeneuve-la-Garenne Brigand and His Wife in Prayer Bringing Down Marble from the Quarries to Carrara The Brioche Broadway and 42nd Street Broken Eggs Burg Weiler Altarpiece Butler Madonna By the Seashore Ca' Dolfin Tiepolos The Calm Sea (painting) Camouflage Self-Portrait Cannon Rock (painting) The Card Players Catania and Mount Etna Cemetery, New Mexico (Marsden Hartley) Cervara Altarpiece The Chess Players (Eakins painting) Children Playing with a Goat Christ Carrying the Cross (El Greco, New York) Christ Presented to the People (Il Sodoma) Christ with a Staff Claes Duyst van Voorhout Cloudy Mountains Coast Guard Station, Two Lights, Maine Coast Scene, Isles of Shoals The Collector of Prints (Edgar Degas) Comtesse de la Châtre Captain George K. H. Coussmaker Cow's Skull: Red, White, and Blue A Cowherd at Valhermeil, Auvers-sur-Oise Cows Crossing a Ford Crucifixion (Corpus Hypercubus) Crucifixion and Last Judgement diptych Crucifixion with the Virgin and St John The Cup of Tea Cypresses (Metropolitan Museum of Art) The Dance Class (Degas, Metropolitan Museum of Art) The Dancing Class The Dead Christ with Angels The Death of Harmonia The Death of Socrates The Defense of Champigny Delirious Hem The Denial of Saint Peter (Caravaggio) Diana and Cupid The Dream of Aeneas (Salvator Rosa) Dressing for the Carnival Madonna and Child (Duccio) Egyptian Woman with Earrings Egyptians Raising Water from the Nile The Empress Elizabeth of Russia on Horseback, Attended by a Page Entrance to a Dutch Port Equestrian Portrait of Cornelis and Michiel Pompe van Meerdervoort with Their Tutor and Coachman Esther before Ahasuerus (Artemisia Gentileschi) Ethel Scull 36 Times The Experts (painting) The Falls of Niagara The Farm at Les Collettes, Cagnes Femme Lisant Ferry near Gorinchem The Fingernail Test Fish Market (Joachim Beuckelaer) The Fishing Boat Fishing Boats, Key West The Five Points (Metropolitan Museum of Art) Florinda (painting) The Forest in Winter at Sunset (painting) The Fortune Teller (de La Tour) Fruit Dish and Glass The Funeral (painting) Fur Traders Descending the Missouri Garden at Sainte-Adresse George Washington (Trumbull) Gilbert Stuart (Goodridge) A Girl Asleep Girl with a Cat (Gwen John) Glass Blowers of Murano Golden Cock and Hen A Goldsmith in His Shop, Possibly Saint Eligius The Great Sirens The Gulf Stream (painting) Harlequin with a Guitar The Harvest, Pontoise The Harvesters (painting) Haystacks:Autumn Head of Christ (Rembrandt, New York) The Heart of the Andes The Hermit (Il solitario) The Horse Fair Houses on the Achterzaan I Saw the Figure 5 in Gold In a Courtyard, Tangier The Interior of an Atelier of a Woman Painter (Lemoine) Interior with a Young Couple and a Dog Irises screen Isaac Blessing Jacob (Gerbrand van den Eeckhout) Isle of the Dead (painting) Italian Hill Town (Arthur B. Davies) Jo, the Beautiful Irishwoman Joy of Life (Valadon) Juan Legua July Fourteenth, Rue Daunou, 1910 The Kearsarge at Boulogne The Lacemaker (Maes) Lachrymae (Frederic Leighton) Lady at the Tea Table Lady with the Rose (Charlotte Louise Burckhardt) Lake George (John Frederick Kensett) Landscape with Sky The Last Communion of Saint Jerome (Botticelli) Lehman Madonna Lilacs in a Window Lobster Fishermen (Marsden Hartley) The Lovesick Maiden Lukas Spielhausen Lydia Crocheting in the Garden at Marly (Mary Cassatt) Madame Élisabeth de France Madame Grand (Louise Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun) Madonna and Child (Bellini, New York, 1485–1490) Madonna and Child Enthroned with Saints (Raphael) Magdalene with Two Flames The Maidservant Maine Coast Majas on a Balcony Manuel Osorio Manrique de Zúñiga The Marriage of the Virgin (Michelino da Besozzo) The Martyrdom of Saint Barbara (Lucas Cranach the Elder) The Masquerade Dress The Matador Saluting Max Schmitt in a Single Scull Mérode Altarpiece Merry company with two men and two women Mezzetino (painting) The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere (painting) Miss V Dressed as a Bullfighter Model by the Wicker Chair Mont Sainte-Victoire and the Viaduct of the Arc River Valley Moonlight, Wood Island Light Morning, An Overcast Day, Rouen Moses Striking the Rock Mother and Child (Cassatt) Mountain Stream (John Singer Sargent) Mountain with Red House Movement No. 5, Provincetown Houses Mr. and Mrs. I. N. Phelps Stokes Mrs. Atkinson (Gwen John) Mrs. Beckington (Alice Beckington) Mrs. Hugh Hammersley The Musician (Bartholomeus van der Helst painting) A Musician and His Daughter The Musicians (Caravaggio) Mystic Marriage of St. Catherine (Memling) Nativity scenes attributed to Zanobi Strozzi Night-Shining White Northeaster (painting) Nude Before a Mirror Oedipus and the Sphinx Old Trees, Level Distance Pity (William Blake) Portrait of Madame Jacques-Louis Leblanc Exhibitions