Camille Silvy
French, 1834-1910
The Day's Orders (L'Ordre du Jour)
INV-2054
Camille Silvy
French, 1834-1910May 1859
The Day's Orders (L'Ordre du Jour)
Camille Silvy French, 1834-1910 →19th centuryphotographalbumen silver print
Date
May 1859
Medium
Albumen print
Dimensions
Image/paper: 24.9 × 18.6 cm (9 13/16 × 7 3/8 in.); Mount: 40.5 × 30.3 cm (16 × 11 15/16 in.)
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Location
Chicago, IL
Credit
Photography Gala Fund; Smart Family Acquisition Fund; Purchased with funds provided by Joyce Chelberg; Lucia Woods and Daniel A. Lindley, Jr. Fund
In this highly staged composition, which he nevertheless presented as a news photograph, Camille Silvy adapted a traditional genre painting for the depiction of a topical event. In May 1859, Emperor Napoleon III led the French Army into Italy to aid the controversial Italian unification movement (and secure the region of Nice for France). To rally French citizens behind his undertaking, the emperor sent his address to the frontline troops—the "Day's Orders"—instantly by electric telegraph back to Paris, where it was printed overnight and posted in the streets. Silvy staged an image of the populace gathering before a poster; two of the men, who turn to face the camera, represent the intellectual and revolutionary factions opposed to the virtual police state that characterized Paris under the emperor's reign. The following week, the newspaper L'Illustration printed a lithographic reproduction of the photograph, making this picture one of the earliest examples of photojournalism.
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