Background
Camille Léon-Louis Silvy was born on March 18, 1834, in Nogent-le-rotrou, Centre, France.
Camille Léon-Louis Silvy was born on March 18, 1834, in Nogent-le-rotrou, Centre, France.
Camille Silvy worked as an amateur for several years when he was a French diplomat in London before opening his portrait studio in Porchester Terrace in that city. He successfully ran the studio until 1869, when he sold it and, with the profits, retired to France. He returned to England in later years as a consul at Exeter.
A landscape photographer during his amateur years, Camille Silvy turned to the popular cartes de visite when he opened his portrait studio and was considered one of the most notable portraitists of his day. His 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 worked with the collodion wet-plate process, producing albumen prints.
Camille Silvy became a member of the Société française de photographie in 1858.
Physical Characteristics: Camille Silvy 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.
Quotes from others about the person
Cecil Beaton called him "the Gainsborough of commercial photographers."