Antoine-Samuel Adam-Salomon

Adam-Salomon used contrast in a way that came to be called “Rembrandt lighting” for its resemblance to the Dutch painter’s dark manner. In this self-portrait, Adam-Salomon portrays himself as a deeply contemplative monk in a pose reminiscent of classical sculpture. Critic Alphonse de Lamartine wrote, “After admiring the portraits caught in a burst of sunlight by Adam-Salomon, the sensitive sculptor who has given up painting, we no longer claim that photography is a trade—it is an art, it is more than an art, it is a solar phenomenon, where the artist collaborates with the sun.”