[The Artist, His Mother, and Friends in Fishing Garb]
Olympe Aguado de las Marismas French
Not on view
The photographer Count Olympe Aguado de las Marismas was a wealthy aristocrat and a familiar figure at the court of Napoleon III. At an informal gathering at one of his country houses, Aguado posed his family and friends as fishermen, complete with long poles, a fine net, and foul-weather gear made of oilcloth. Although her elegant printed dress peaks out from below her rain jacket, the artist's mother seems well disposed for a soggy jaunt to the local trout stream. The photograph exemplifies the striking maturity and confidence, both technical and aesthetic, achieved by the medium's finest practitioners in its second decade.