Tuesday, December 3, 2013

Eve with Snake, by Henri Manuel

Talk about a time machine.... The feel of the period derived from a card like this one is sensational. There is something about a fine photograph in natural sepia tones that is just so...wonderful. Images of Eve being tempted by the snake abound, being a favorite of artists of all ages, but rarely has Eve managed to look quite so humorously nonchalant about the encounter as she does in this image by Henri Manuel.

AVAILABLE FOR PURCHASE Fabulous French Faux Nude with Snake, circa 1900, by Henri Manuel

This postcard, published about 1900, features a superbly naive image of an unidentified model  “en collant” (in a body stocking) with a really great snake! One has to wonder, when viewing an image of this kind, whether the goal was humor, titillation, gender politics, a biblical reference of any kind, or a mix of oh, so many things, but the quality of the image is undeniable. Her facial expression seems to us to say,  “Et alors! You think I can't handle this?”

This card was published by SIP (the Societe Industrielle de Photographie), one of the most prolific French postcard publishers at that time. The image was photographed by Henri Manuel, and given the age of the card (its production date, by its undivided back, is likely to have been before 1904), the photo would have been taken not long after Monsieur Manuel and his brother, Gaston (about whom we can find no information whatsoever), opened their first portrait studio in Paris, in 1900.

Henri Manuel's name appears on many of the cards we bring into our shop, and though most of the subjects we deal in are very lighthearted, Manuel himself was a serious photographer, and an astute business man. He became well known not only for his portraits of theatrical personalities, risque nudes, and romantic fantaisies, but more, for his portraits of famous politicians, art, architecture, and in 1910, “Manuel’s studio began providing a commercial service to news agencies for photographs known as ‘L’Agence universelle de reportage Henri Manuel.’” His studio grew to be the largest in Paris, a recognized center for the development of the photographic arts (please forgive the pun ☺), and for the three decades between 1914 and 1944, Henri Manuel held the post of official photographer for the French government. Because we know his studio operations were shut down during WWII, we wonder if during the last years he held that government post (when France was under German occupation), he worked for  “Free France,” but we haven't yet found a lot of history on that period. Henri Manuel passed away in 1947.

Just to give you an idea of the broad scope of the man's work, you can examine a few of the approximately 2500 photographs Manuel's studio produced of French prisons and juvenile facilities between the years 1929 and 1931, for the French Department of Justice. Pretty grim stuff, but though Red Poulaine is very much about the frolicsome fun, we feel it's important to give you background on our photographers and artistes when possible, and well...we just love the stories.

3 comments:

  1. beautiful blog you have here. just found you by accident researching these wonderful photographs. forgive the placement of this random comment, but i was hoping you might know something about this image:

    http://i.ebayimg.com/t/Victorian-Nordic-French-Lady-Playing-Aquatic-Harp-Stringed-Instrument-Postcard-/00/s/ODMwWDUwMA==/$T2eC16N,!wsE9suw%29kV1BQInPwRvuw~~60_12.JPG

    it hails from a recently ended ebay auction in the uk but the seller wouldn't respond to my inquiries about the publisher. from what little i've gleaned from the web, the star in the bottom left corner might indicate walery (or one of his other pseudonyms)? can't rightly make out the letters down thar. perhaps tis one of the maenads i briefly read about on yr etsy page? truly at a loss, but i just love the colours, gracious me. anyhow, happy new year to you + thanks in advance if you can take a moment to help. cheers chum ~

    OvO

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    1. Welcome! The image you're asking about is one of the Sisters Lorrison, as seen in our blog's background. Most of the images of them reference Anthony's, as does yours. We initially thought Anthony's was a Parisian music hall, but we have run across some recent references suggesting that it might be a photographic studio. We can't see the star in the image you linked, but a star in either of the bottom corners is probably a marque etoile (exact translation, star label), which was the logo of the photographic studio and printing house of Monsieur G. Piprot, of Paris. He published cards for Walery (hence the connection you uncovered), as well as Sazerac and many others, including photographs he took himself. Unfortunately, we have no biographic information about M. Piprot.

      At the moment, we have two different cards featuring one or more of the Sisters Lorrison, both of which bear the star mark and say Anthony's Paris:

      The Sisters Lorrison, Mistresses of the Belle Epoque Chignon, circa 1900
      http://www.etsy.com/listing/168154628/the-sisters-lorrison-mistresses-of-the

      Mlle. Lorrison Holds Aloft the Chalice of Euterpe, circa 1900
      http://www.etsy.com/listing/154075916/mlle-lorrison-holds-aloft-the-chalice-of

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