[Seated Woman Holding a Child]

This charming portrait epitomizes the work of the French photographer Félix Devisuzanne, who was praised for his ability to capture sitters’ natural expressions rather than the grimaces often seen in early photographs. Wherever the itinerant daguerreotypist went, local French press lauded the promptness of his process. In Toulouse, for example, his “pretty portraits” were noted not only for their fine features, but also for the tactility of their subjects’ apparel: “nothing compares to the softness of clothes whose silky reflections equal those of the newest and brightest fabrics.” Beginning in 1842, Devisuzanne travelled between Normandy and the Mediterranean before finally settling in Toulon in 1847; he operated a portrait studio there through at least 1859.