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Documented: 1894
1894 Cabinet Card
- Scalloped edges, nearly symmetrical
- The women's dresses, particularly shoulders and sleeves.
- Trompe l'oeil frame mask
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Trompe l'oeil Story |
Trompe-l'œil, which can also be spelled without the hyphen in English as trompe l'oeil,[1] (French for 'deceive the eye', is an art technique involving extremely realistic imagery in order to create the optical illusion that the depicted objects appear in three dimensions. (Wikipedia, 10/25/2011)
This style of painting fell in and out of favor many times, beginning with Greek art.
It experienced a resurgence in the 1880s; in advertising, posters, and photography.
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Clues
- Scalloped card edges
- Women's dresses, especially shoulders and sleeves
- Trompe l'oeil artwork framing the image.
This cabinet card is a beautiful specimen of 1890s photography. And the photograph and card is in mint condition. Fortunately this photograph was was identified on the back with the ladies initials (which matched a name other photographs from the same collection) her age of 21 and Nov 1894.
Scalloped card edges can be found on cabinet cards from the late 1880s throughout the 1890s. However, beginning in the mid-90s, the serrated edges were fairly uniform in size and spacing, like these. Early notches were very uneven in both height and width.
This young lady's dress is stylish for the time with large puffy sleeves and protruding shoulders. confirm the time. Her hair is typically done for a special occasion such as sitting for a formal photograph
The Trompe l'oel affect on the photograph was very popular in this time frame. It was an artistic affect that was applied to many things. See the explanation of this technique to the right
This cabinet card was purchased as part of a group of family members, each identified and dated. All the photographs were treated in some artistic version of a trompe l'oeil pattern. Researched through leading ancestor databases have found them all living will into the 20th century. So these were not memorial cards as many believe the style represented. |
Trompe l'oeil in 19th Century Photography
This style and many artistic variations are usually erroneously identified as memorial cards of recently deceased love ones.
However, this was just a fresh application of an old idea to photographs. In the late 1880s and through the 1890s, many trompe l'oeil treatments were applied to pop art of the time, advertising, and theater art. Photograph supply companies sold glass filters that would be placed over the negative a print time, creating the desired affect.
Of the many photographs in the PhotoTree collection, and other sources examined, no evidence such as deceased or memorial notations have been found on the back of any photographs. Actually, many entries of the persons name have been found, with many found through genealogy databases to have lived quite past this era. Indeed, this author's grandmother was pictured in this style as a child in the 1890s. She lived until 1986.
No examples of a post mortem picture (which easy to identify) have been observed with this treatment. It is possible a living relative took a recent picture of a deceased person and had a reprint made in this style, though no documented case has been found.
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