[Jean-Gabriel and Anna Eynard with their Nieces, Sophie de Charrière-Odier and Mathilde Horngacher-Odier]
Jean-Gabriel Eynard Swiss, born France
Not on view
This rather anodyne family portrait depicts an intriguing figure in the early history of photography. One of the first adopters of the daguerreotype in Switzerland, Jean-Gabriel Eynard made hundreds of photographs depicting the domestic life of his extended family. An entrepreneur and diplomat, he helped to re-establish Swiss independence at the Congress of Vienna in 1815 and was a fervent proponent of the Greek War of Independence, which he supported financially. His wife, Anna Eynard-Lullin, played a key role in her husband’s diplomatic machinations. She appears throughout his oeuvre in this same exact pose, the stable center of Eynard’s social and political orbit.
