#Napoleon Sarony

[agelessphotography]

Oscar Wilde, Napoleon Sarony, 1882

[visionsofour-past]

• John Drew, Jr. and woman.

Artist/Maker: Napoleon Sarony (American, born Canada, 1821-1896)

Date: negative 1885–1903; print 1903–1920

Medium: Gelatin silver print

[oscarwilde-scholar]

The Sarony Case

Napoleon Sarony’s contribution to the photographs of Oscar Wilde was not primarily technical. Instead, he drew upon his artistic background to create the mise en scène of the image; and drew upon his buoyant personality to create the right mood for his sitter. Meanwhile, it was his first and only operator, Benjamin J. Richardson who assisted with lighting and attended to the mechanical aspects…

[fleetwood-rendezvous]

Oscar Wilde.

Oscar Wilde photographed by Napoleon Sarony, 1882.

These photographs were taken in January of 1882, when Wilde had first arrived in America for his year long lecture tour. All were taken in the studio of the most famous portrait photographer of the time, Canadian born Napoleon Sarony. The various furs, capes, velvet jackets, and stockings Wilde wore for the photo shoot reflected the attire he would wear to his lectures.

It certainly surprised me when I found out that the majority of Wilde’s most iconic images came from the same session, and were taken in the U.S. when Wilde had only published a yet to be produced play, Vera; or, the Nihilists, and a single book of verse (which Wilde can be seen holding in the first and second photographs).

[dumbbitchhour]

Napoleon Sarony, John Drewm Jr. as Captain Plume from "The Recruiting Officer", 1885 x

[midatlanticwasp]

The Declaration of Independence - lithograph c. 1843-1853 by Napoleon Sarony.

[yestergaze]

Lily Langtry and Sarah Bernhardt

Photographer: Napoleon Sarony (1821-1896)

Date of photo circa 1887

printed: by Napoleon Sarony

87 Union Square North, NY, NY

Stamped: MRS. LANGTRY AND SARA BERNHARDT \ COPYRIGHT 1887 BY NAPOLEON SARONY.

Credit Line Amon Carter Museum of American Art, Fort Worth, Texas, Gift of Paul Katz, North Bennington, Vermont

Copyright Public domain

[history-of-fashion]

1880 Winslow Homer in New York (photo by Napoleon Sarony)

(Bowdoin College Museum of Art)

[artthatgivesmefeelings]

Guillermo Collazo (Cuban-born Spanish, 1850-1896) A orillas del lago, 19th century Colonial art, Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes de Cuba Collazo was born into an established colonial family in Cuba. He went to live in New York for a while, where he found work in the studios of Napoleon Sarony, saving enough money to open his own art studio and enjoying great success as a portrait painter. In 1883 he returned to Cuba, opening a studio in Havana, and five years later he decided to go to Paris, where he opened a large studio which became a meeting point for the Cuban exile community. He died in Paris, and in 1899, his family brought his remains back to Cuba.  

[raphlecia]

THE CAMP POSE — A double-gendered teapot, ca. 1882

The camp pose can be traced to the contrapposto (literally, "opposed") stance of Antinous, the young lover of the Roman emperor Hadrian who embodied the classical idea of male beauty in the second century A.D, called the "Beau Ideal" since the nineteenth century... Starting in the seventeenth century, Antinous became an idol of homoeroticism, and in the twentieth century, his serpentine pose became synonymous with a more contemporary camp pose, known as "the teapot."

At Versailles, the camp-site par excellence, members of the royal family were known to pose on and off the stage. In 1671, French playwright Molière debuted his play Scapin the Schemer, which introduced the term "se camper," meaning to pose in an exaggerated fashion, an allusion to the crooked pose with bent leg: "Camp about on one leg. Put your hand on your hip. Wear a furious look. Strut about like a drama king."

Inspired by the aristocratic poses of Versailles, Victorian playwright Oscar Wilde was known to adopt an effeminate aesthete's pose... The various poses affected by Wilde in [Napoleon] Sarony's photographs were influenced by François Delsarte's Science of Applied Aesthetics, in which the author connects physical expressions and movements with emotions. Wilde's "teapot pose" was parodied in the shape of a double-gendered teapot by the Royal Worcester company, which bore the wry inscription, "Fearful Consequences Through the Laws of Natural Selection and Evolution of Living Up to One's Teapot." This inscription implies that the young man and woman have so literally "lived up to their china" that they have morphed into a teapot. — Karen Van Godtsenhoven, WorldPride at The Met: The Camp Pose

[misterlucidream]

Thinking about the lady from 2025

[noirbeduzz]

— Marie Doro, (1882 - 1956) Photographed by Napoleon Sarony, 1909.

[oscarwilde-scholar]

[lombardie-colorings]

Maude Adams.

Photographed by Napoleon Sarony, between 1890-1895.

Colored by Lombardie Colorings.

[placeholdercornerworks]

Thought has been pestering me today (but positively) so I do want to share.

I was kind of skimming through my literature book earlier and it made me think, is every single famous photograph of Oscar Wilde taken by Napoleon Sarony or something? Cause once or twice it's a nice little coincidence, the third time it makes you go "oh yeah, I expected that", but after every single new photograph I learn the existence of seems to be always taken by that guy, it truly makes you wonder how did the two even met in the first place? How did this arrangement come to be?

[thatwildegirl]

Some gems found on twitter

22 Colourised photos of Oscar Wilde

Original photos were taken by Napoleon Sarony in New York City during his American tour from 1882 to 1883.

More of them are in the twitter thread below.