Figure 1 – Napoleon Sarony portrait of a young girl, c1870.
I recently acquired the Napoleon Sarony (1821-1896) portrait of Figure 1. There are some very charming features of this picture, the white dress and tights, the bow in the girl’s hair, and her delicate features. The high-button shoes are wonderful as is the large white sash. But best of all is the expression on the child’s face and the way she looks wistfully or angrily away and down. Is that a pout? Perhaps it was a matter of ennui. Was the initial excitement of a day with her mother on bustling Broadway faded by the reality of having to sit for Mr. Sarony. Was there perhaps a promised treat if she behaved “appropriately?” This is the wonder and magic of such photographs. We don’t really know the story, but that doesn’t stop our imagination from filling in the gaps and creating a plausible theory.
Many of these antique albumen prints suffer from their age. There are fixer stains usually brownish yellow dirt and water spots that need to be removed digitally, And this image took a lot of work. Fortunately the majority of the problems were in the borders and on the girl’s dress; so could be removed without causing loss to the image. Old albumens are meant to have a slightly violet or reddish brown tone and this one ran to the magenta. I first removed the stains in color, where I could be guided by the color itself. Then I converted first to black and wife for dodging and burning and second Finally I switched back to RGB and added the tone. I chose a tone that is true to what the artist sought, true to the antiquity of the image, as opposed to what I myself like.
The photograph is pretty easy to date. On the back Sarony Studios is listed as being at 680 Broadway. It opened in 1866 and then moved to 37 Union Square in 1871. So the portrait was taken between 1866 and 1871.
I return to the image and notice the wrinkles in the young lady’s tights. Above all there is a sense of mischief about her. She is very reminiscent of Alice from Alice in Wonderland, or of Alice Liddell herself, and if she swallowed a bitter pill on that particular day then we have to remember what Alice herself taught us,
“If you drink much from a bottle marked ‘poison’ it is certain to disagree with you sooner or later.”