Camille Silvy

Camille-Léon-Louis Silvy
Born (1834-03-18)March 18, 1834
Nogent-le-Rotrou, Eure-et-Loir, France
Died February 2, 1910(1910-02-02) (aged 75)
Saint-Maurice, France
Nationality French
Occupation Photographer
Years active 1857-1870

Camille-Léon-Louis Silvy (born Nogent-le-Rotrou, France, 1834; died Saint-Maurice, France, 1910) was a French photographer, primarily active in London.

He learned photography from his friend, Count Olympe Aguado, in 1857,[1] and became a member of the Société française de photographie in 1858. He then moved to London and opened a portrait studio at 38 Porchester Terrace, Bayswater, becoming a member of the Photographic Society in 1859. Sitters in Silvy's portraits include Princess Mary Adelaide of Cambridge, Queen Emma of Hawaii, Lady Amberley, Harriet Martineau, Adelina Patti and Frederick Robson. He also photographed many members of the British royal family. The National Portrait Gallery, London, holds his studio's daybooks, which include details of some 17,000 sittings, with about 12,000 of these showing an image from the sitting.

He closed his studio and returned to France in 1868. He himself believed that his nervous system had been damaged by exposure to potassium cyanide in the darkroom but it more likely that he suffered from manic depression. The last thirty years of his life were spent in a succession of hospitals, sanatoria and convalescent homes.

French river scene, 1858 
The Day's Orders, 1859 
Albert, Prince Consort, c1859 
Street musicians, c1860 
Detail of a reverse of a carte de viste showing Silvy's logo, 30 April, 1861 
Camille Silvy with his wife and his mother 1865 

References

  1. ↑ Masterpieces of the J. Paul Getty Museum, 1999, p. 40.
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