Camille Silvy
{{Short description|French photographer}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=July 2021}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Camille Silvy
| image = Camille Silvy by Camille Silvy albumen print 1860.jpg
| caption =
| birth_name = Camille-Léon-Louis Silvy
| birth_date = {{Birth date|1834|3|18|df=y}}
| birth_place = Nogent-le-Rotrou, Eure-et-Loir, France
| death_date = {{Death date and age|1910|2|2|1834|3|18|df=y}}
| death_place = Saint-Maurice, France
| occupation = Photographer
| years_active = 1857–1870
| known_for =
| notable_works =
}}
Camille-Léon-Louis Silvy (18 March 1834 – 2 February 1910) was a French photographer, primarily active in London.
Life and career
Silvy learned photography from his friend, Count Olympe Aguado, in 1857,[https://books.google.com/books?id=A3UnAQAAMAAJ&q=%22olympe+aguado%22 Masterpieces of the J. Paul Getty Museum], 1999, p. 40. 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, Sarah Forbes Bonetta 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.{{Citation needed|date=May 2024}}
Silvy closed his studio and returned to France in 1868. He believed that his nervous system had been damaged by exposure to potassium cyanide in the darkroom but it is 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. An English Heritage blue plaque commemorating Silvy was unveiled at 38 Porchester Terrace, London, on 16 July 2019.{{Cite web |date=2019-07-16 |title=English Heritage blue plaque to Camille Silvy unveiled |url=https://britishphotohistory.ning.com/profiles/blogs/english-heritage-blue-plaque-to-camille-silvy-unveiled |access-date=2024-05-02 |website=British Photographic History}}
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Gallery
File:Camille Silvy (French - River Scene - Google Art Project.jpg|French river scene, 1858
File:Camille Léon Louis Silvy - The Day's Orders (L'Ordre du Jour) - Google Art Project.jpg|The Day's Orders, 1859
File:Albert Prince Consort, c.1859. (7936243058) -crop.jpg|Albert, Prince Consort, c1859
File:Camille Silvy (French - Street Musicians - Google Art Project.jpg|Street musicians, c1860
File:C Silvy back of carte.jpg|Detail of a reverse of a carte de visite showing Silvy's logo, 30 April, 1861
File:James Pinson Labulo Davies and Sara Forbes Bonetta.jpg|James Pinson Labulo Davies and Sarah Forbes Bonetta, 1862
File:Camille Silvy with his wife and his mother 1865 photographed by Camille Silvy.jpg|Camille Silvy with his wife and his mother 1865
References
{{reflist}}
External links
{{Commons category|Camille Silvy}}
- [http://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/person/mp08115/camille-silvy?role=art Silvy in the NPG archive].
- [https://web.archive.org/web/20100714000552/http://www.getty.edu/art/gettyguide/artMakerDetails?maker=1567 Biography] at Getty.edu.
- [https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/photography/7898906/Camille-Silvy-Photographer-of-Modern-Life-at-the-National-Portrait-Gallery-review.html review of National Portrait Gallery exhibition] by Richard Dorment, "Camille Silvy: Photographer of Modern Life at the National Portrait Gallery", The Daily Telegraph, 19 July 2010. Retrieved 10 August 2010.
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{{EarlyFrenchPhotographers}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Silvy, Camille}}
Category:19th-century French photographers
Category:Artists' Rifles soldiers
Category:French expatriates in England
Category:People with bipolar disorder
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