Etienne Carjat, who was, in turn, an actor, industrial draftsman, caricaturist, and editor of a weekly cultural journal called Le Boulevard, opened his photography studio in 1861 at 56 Rue Lafitte in Paris.
He invited politicians (Jules Ferry, Léon Gambetta), writers (Victor Hugo, Charles Baudelaire), painters (Corot, Delacroix, Daumier), actors (Frédérick Lemaître, Sarah Bernardt), his Bohemian friends, and those in the opposition to sit for him.
He made two portraits of Delacroix, one shown here representing the artist’s bust (1860) and the other cut off at the knees (1862).
