Woman Seen from the Back

A wealthy amateur photographer and a well-known presence at the French imperial court, Viscount Onésipe-Gonsalve Aguado de Las Marismas became a member of the Société Française de Photographie in 1858. Together with his more famous brother, Olympe—one of the society’s founders—he was among the pioneers of photographic enlargements. The brothers also worked jointly on tableaux vivants (static scenes containing one or more actors or models), creating witty and playful scenes that reflected the tastes and entertainments of fashionable society.

This intriguing image functions simultaneously as a portrait, a fashion statement, and a visual joke. It conveys Aguado’s lighthearted, imaginative spirit and may represent an extension of his experiments with foreshortening. Notably flat and lacking in depth, the figure appears almost like a paper cutout or silhouette. The composition recalls the work of artists such as Caspar David Friedrich and René Magritte, who famously used figures seen from behind to evoke mystery and introspection.

P.S. Early photographers loved to experiment with the new medium. The 19th-century London, witnessed a controversial and short-lived phenomenon—discover Victorian spirit photography!