[Self-Portrait in the Garden]

about 1845–1849

Medium

Salted paper print

Dimensions

15.9 × 12.7 cm

Status

In Museum Collection

Collect24 Art ID

C24-386328

By October 1840, a little over a year after several competing photographic processes had been made public, Hippolyte Bayard began staging elaborate self-portraits in his garden and other locations. His best known, Le Noyé [The Drowned Man], was made on October 18, 1840 (three variants are now part of the collection of the [Société française de photographie](http://www.sfp.asso.fr/photographie/picture.php?/8830/search/75) in Paris. The Getty Museum’s collection includes six other self-portraits by Bayard in addition to this 1847 Self-portrait in the Garden (See: [84.XO.968.1](https://www.getty.edu/art/collection/objects/64858/hippolyte-bayard-self-portrait-in-front-of-garden-french-june-1845/), [84.XO.968.166](https://www.getty.edu/art/collection/objects/64876/hippolyte-bayard-self-portrait-in-the-garden-french-1847/)).\* In five of the seven self-portraits, he placed himself in garden settings. This was, in part, a practical decision since natural light was required to make photographs at the time. However, his choice of setting also reflects his passion for plants. He came from a family of gardeners—his maternal grandfather worked in the extensive grounds of the abbey in Breteui…