Portrait of his son, Francis George Claudet

Antoine Francois Jean Claudet

ca. 1855

Calotype

Seattle Art Museum

A man in a hat and suit stands holding a rifle and a pipe, leaning against a stone wall covered in ivy. He wears a woven bag over his shoulder. A man in a hat and suit stands holding a rifle and a pipe, leaning against a stone wall covered in ivy. He wears a woven bag over his shoulder. The French-born Claudet was one of the great photographic innovators of the nineteenth century. He was one of the first practitioners of the daguerreotype in England, and he invented such staples as the light meter and the red darkroom light. In 1851 he opened a lavish studio in London and was later named court photographer to Queen Victoria. This seemingly casual portrait of his son derives some of its flinty presence from the fact that the sitter had to hold the pose for at least three min