The Tile Club: Camaraderie and American Plein-Air Painting The Tile Club | Page 118

Napoleon Sarony
American, b. Canada, 1821–1896
Napoleon Sarony was one of America’s best-known portrait pho-
tographers—capturing the likes of Oscar Wilde, Sarah Bernhardt,
Mark Twain, Lillian Russell, and “Buffalo Bill.” Born in Que-
bec, Canada, Sarony moved to New York City as a teenager and
served as an apprentice under the printmaker Henry R. Robinson.
He then worked for the lithographer Nathaniel Currier before
forming his own partnership with James Major in 1843. The
lithography firm became Sarony & Company in 1853 and then
Sarony, Major & Knapp when Joseph F. Knapp joined in 1857.
Following the death of Sarony’s wife a year later, he sailed for Eu-
rope with his children. After exploring the sites of Paris, Berlin,
and London, he began working closely with his brother Oliver,
a photographer living in Scarborough, England. Fascinated by
the medium, Napoleon became a partner in the studio of Robert
White Thrupp and Martin Laroche in Birmingham.
In 1866, Sarony returned to the United States where he
opened his own portrait studio on Broadway. He not only brought
with him supplies from Oliver’s studio, but he also was joined by
the English inventor and photographer Alfred S. Campbell. By
1871, Campbell had left to set up his own business, and Sarony
Napoleon Sarony (American, b. Canada, 1821–1896),
Napoleon Sarony Self-Portrait, ca. 1895, albumen silver print,
5 5/8 x 3 15/16 in., National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian
Institution, NPG.82.152
moved the studios to 37 Union Square. This massive space, which were widely collected and traded by the public.
thor William Bradshaw as a “museum of curiosities” with Renais- REFERENCES:
included an office and reception room, was described by the au-
sance style furniture, a plaster model of Christopher Columbus, Bassham, Ben L. The Theatrical Photographs of Napoleon Sarony.
shaw, 91). However, one of the greatest curiosities of the studio, Bradshaw, William R. “The Nude in Art: An Interview with
Mexican pottery and saddles, and an Egyptian mummy (Brad-
according to Bradshaw, was Sarony himself. Short in stature with
a wiry mustache and goatee, he commonly wore a red fez and
astrakhan coat—often calling as much attention to himself as did
the actors and actress he photographed. Specializing in the carte-
de-visite, a 4 x 2 1/2-inch photograph mounted on card, Sarony
produced tens of thousands of these photographic prints which
112 THE TILE CLUB: Camaraderie and American Plein-Air Painting
Kent, OH: Kent State University Press, 1978.
Napoleon Sarony.” The Decorator and Furnisher 26, no. 3
( June 1895): 91–93.
Tuchman, Mitch. “Supremely Wilde: How an 1882 portrait of
the flamboyant man of letters reached the highest court in
the land and changed U.S. law forever.” Smithsonian
Magazine (May 2004): n. pag.