2-735-531 - Heritage Art/Heritage Images

Mother with Two Children, c. 1855. After his antigovernment political activity closed off his professional opportunities as a painter, Frénet took up photography in 1850 and a decade later opened a commercial portrait studio. He preferred simple, plain settings and relied on sitters’ interactions to reveal their personalities and relationships. This family grouping, probably taken for personal pleasure, offers a sense of casual immediacy unusual for the time in both painted and photographic portraiture.