Social Media: A 19th-Century Invention

tableau_lubelskiego_towarzystwa_cyklistow.jpg, default, Tableau of Lublin Society of Cyclists, 1893, in ‘Lublin Group Photographs (Tableaux), Late 19th Century to 1920s’ collection, photo: the National Muse, Social Media: A 19th-Century Invention

#photography

#language & literature

#photography & visual arts

Let’s assume that the photographic tableau was the prototype of our current communication channels. Whom would Adam Mickiewicz have added to his friends group on Facebook? Who would have followed Henryk Siemiradzki? What would Henryk Sienkiewicz’s profile pictures have looked like? Which shots would have been featured in an 1865 wrap-up?

Are you familiar with the rule ‘If you’re not on the Internet, you don’t exist’? Almost two hundred years ago, it would go more or less like this: ‘If you don’t have a tableau of yourself, you don’t exist’. Commemorative photos of groups of people composed of many smaller portraits (from French tableau, ‘picture, image’) gained popularity in the 1860s. By that time, photography as a field had developed significantly: the collodion process proved faster, cheaper and more effective than the daguerreotype, which produced only a single image at a time, and the time of exposure was reduced from a dozen or several dozen minutes to just a few seconds. Further, photographic ateliers were being established in cities and offered professional cartes de visite – small-sized photographs serving as a kind of calling card – or slightly larger studio portraits.

#themorethemerrier

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Photographic tableau dedicated to Aleksander Rajchman, director, Warsaw Philharmonic, by Warsaw National Philharmonic Orchestra, 26 December 1906, photo: The National Museum in Warsaw

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In his book Ze starego albumu (From an Old Album), artist, historian and collector of old photographs Zenon Harasym argues that, while taking a photo of two, at most three people wasn’t much of an issue, difficulties began when the group was larger. Aside from the technique – the matter of even lighting, for instance – one had to consider the question of aesthetics. In the case of group photographs, an effort was made to avoid shots in which the heads of the sitters were in line or the distances between them were even. For this reason, photographic ateliers would frequently be equipped with special sets of stools, connected to each other and fixed at different heights and at different distances from each other. Further, careful efforts were made for hierarchies to be conveyed: the eldest of the family, principals, teachers or jubilarians were positioned in the middle of the frame and dressed in light-coloured or contrasting clothing.

A breakthrough in group photography came in the year 1863 when French photographer André Adolphe-Eugène Disdéri (the same one who, in 1854, patented the carte de visite) submitted to the patent office his idea for calling cards comprising many miniature portraits. They were created by sticking individual photographs on cardboard, then rephotographing the resulting photo collage and copying it in the carte de visite format. The concept was greeted with enormous interest. For instance, in just the first few days of May 1863, 70,000 copies of the mosaic of ‘Great Frenchmen’ were ordered, depicting all kinds of individuals, from doctors and barristers to Napoleon III. Large-format collages quickly started to appear, commemorating all kinds of occasions: birthdays, anniversaries, as well as school and occupational groups. The people photographed were linked by a strong bond, either professional or familial, or, alternatively, by a common goal, passion or enterprise. The tableau would confirm or even shape these relationships.

The creators of one of the iterations of the Photography Room in the National Museum in Warsaw, presenting 35 photographic tableaux in the last quarter of 2023, referred to them as ‘the social medium of the 1800s’. In the curatorial essay, we read:

As products of modernity, photographic tableaux were in demand, enthusiastically ordered by patrons and publicised by the press, which enhanced the social prestige of the individuals portrayed. Coordinating the process of assembling a tableau was an interactional phenomenon in itself – making it a social medium of its time, which could build interpersonal relationships even across partition borders.

[trans. SOURCE]

A person’s profile can be followed nowadays to find out about their interests and social relationships; back then, one had only to look at a tableau. So let’s see who among 19th-century artists and literati had a busy social life and who would have earned the title of an influencer.

#roastgooseforsaintmartin’s

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‘Marcine!!!’, card dedicated to Marcin Olszyński, 1859, photographer: Karol Beyer, graphic artist: Henryk Pillati, author: Wacław Szymanowski, photo: National Museum in Warsaw

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The oldest known Polish tableau is a name-day card for Marcin Olszyński. It was made in 1859 – that is, a few years before Disdéri patented photo mosaics – in the studio of Karol Beyer, Warsaw’s first professional photographer. Olszyński was an artist, illustrator and publicist. It was Beyer who got him hooked on photography, first hiring him as a sitter and retoucher, then as a camera operator. From 1865, Olszyński ran a photographic studio together with Konrad Brandel, after which he established his own atelier called Prim, then Świetlik (skylight, or firefly). In his name-day tableau, Olszyński bestrides a goose, under which is his name and the faded birthday wishes composed by Wacław Szymanowski, followed by three bottles drawn upside-down, made to look like exclamation marks. These elements are surrounded by portraits of the artist’s friends (including Beyer himself). The satirical composition was decorated with pictorial, military and architectural details by Henryk Pillati. In the bottom right-hand corner, a devil accompanied by a cat is raising a toast. Nowadays, too, we can wish our friends happy birthday using a special board: a virtual one.

A tableau was normally the result of the cooperation of a photographer with a graphic artist. Elaborate artistic motifs would usually refer to the occupation or interests of the person or group to whom the photo collage was dedicated. Alternatively, the pictures would sometimes consist of elaborate illustrations meant to highlight the likenesses of the sitters. For instance, the 1893 tableau depicting the members of the Association of Lublin Cyclists features the outline of a bicycle: miniature photographs fill the two spoked wheels, the seat and the handlebars, and the whole image is inscribed into a Lublin landscape with the coat of arms of the city and a racetrack. The artist behind the work – both the photographs and the decorative background – was Władysław Barwicki (Wojciech Gerson’s apprentice), and the composition was duplicated in the studio of Aleksander Stepanow in Lublin.

It’s worth remembering that 19th-century tableaux served not only as gifts and that they weren’t merely an artist’s whim. They were meant to emphasise social status and serve as an advertising tool informing potential customers about the services offered (either by those depicted or by the photographer or artist who designed the collage). That’s why a lot of attention was paid to the aesthetics, inventiveness and humorous elements that would make an image stand out among many other similar ones.

#caretakerswithwateringcans #sandminers #tinkers

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'Calendar for the year 1866. Published and owned by K. Brandel & Co. Photographic Studio...', 1865, photo: National Museum in Warsaw

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The cooperation of Olszyński and Brandel began with a bang in November 1865. The two gentlemen advertised their services by means of an 1866 calendar that was nothing other than an innovative tableau. What did it look like? Kurier Warszawski (Warsaw Courier) journalists informed their readers:

The other day, in the studio of Mr Brandel & Co., we witnessed the first prints of a new photographic calendar. The more impressive among our city’s landmarks, churches, edifices surround the calendar in tabs laid out like a fan, under which we see the image of the new Alexandrowski Bridge, the Saxon Garden lit up and crowded with people, the interior of the Evangelical Church, the Redout Rooms [of the Grand Theatre], Mr Le-Brun Hall, Dolina [Park], Mokotów Field remind us of lotteries, the oratorium, readings, matinees, Bilse’s orchestra, horse races. Next to our own artistic and literary celebrities, we see foreign ones, too […]. There are caretakers with watering cans, sand miners, tinkers and all the figures inherent to Warsaw streets. Our own domestic writings, old and new, also figure in the calendar, as well as copies of some of our first-class paintings. Put briefly, the creators wanted to highlight all that preoccupied and entertained the people of Warsaw in the current year, containing on one sheet of paper that which could fill a number of albums, because there would be a total of over 300 images, not much fewer than the number of days in the year.

Let’s clarify that the calendar exhibited in the storefront of the photographic studio in Nowy Świat was made using 168 photos and Gerson’s illustrations, employing the technique of positive photomontage. The authors of the photographs were Brandel, Beyer, Jan Mieczkowski and Maksymilian Fajans, who contributed a total of 93 shots of buildings, 41 portraits and 34 scenes from daily life. Such an attractively composed chronicle of 19th-century Warsaw is in no way inferior to the contemporary images of cities promoting themselves on social media.

As we can see, tableaux didn’t necessarily have to depict people; their possible subjects also included architecture, culture and significant historical and social events. In 1870, Awit Szubert, a painter and one of the first photographers of the Tatra Mountains, created an alternative to the ordinary postcard: a tableau depicting a view of the Pieniny Mountains, the architecture of Szczawnica and portraits of regional folk types. Beyer, in turn, documented the dramatic events in the [Congress] Kingdom of Poland [a polity comprising Polish land ceded to the Russian Empire after the Congress of Vienna, trans.] and then assembled the images together with those of well-known figures and photographs of the victims of a peaceful patriotic demonstration (Pięciu poległych [The Five Fallen]).

The authors of the article in a Warsaw periodical correctly noted that one photographic tableau could contain pictures which, in their standard form, could fill several albums. The fashion for these elegantly bound visual stories came to us from Paris. They were more than just a pragmatic way of storing photographs; they also made for attractive keepsakes to be gifted to family and friends. A stationery store in Warsaw combined with a photo-album manufacture was run, for instance, by Chodowiecki and Bednawski. Small-sized items with little windows made to match the dimensions of a carte de visite, they came in multiple different forms: from classic little books through fold-out harmonicas (leporello) to fancy fans. The cheaper ones were bound in paper; the more expensive ones, in leather or velvet. (Those from the Warsaw collection were on view in the exhibition Śliczna jest młodość naszego wieku. Fotoalbumy 1850–1950 [Lovely Is the Youth of Our Age: Photo Albums 1850–1950] in the Museum of Warsaw through 26 May 2024.)

The first photo album in Poland was Beyer’s 1859 publication, which included pictures of Warsaw. While it was men who took up composing and illustrating books of this kind in the country on the Vistula, in the country of the Thames it was Lady Filmer, i.e. Mary Georgiana Caroline Hill, who truly excelled at the art. This Victorian celebrity, back then probably not considered an artist, created colourful and humorous photocollage albums. Americans, in turn, invented yearbooks: albums containing photographs of people, rarely those of events, meant to sum up the past year, issued by educational institutions, organisations and state or private companies – a paper Instagram of sorts.

#donotdrawattentionawayfromthehead

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Henryk Sienkiewicz (1846–1916) at different periods of his life, tableau with 9 portraits of H. Sienkiewicz, made for 25th anniversary of the writer’s work, celebrated on 22 December 1900, photo: The National Museum in Warsaw

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Have you ever wondered how to take a perfect profile picture for social media? Giuseppe Pizzighelli, cited by Harasym, has the answer you need! In a photography textbook from 1899, the Italian or perhaps Austrian chemist and photographer included a few timeless tips. These were the following: to make the physique look powerful and full of character, the sitter’s head ought to be turned in a different direction than the body and tilted slightly towards the camera (Pizzighelli used the term ‘darkroom’). The shoulder line should be rounded, not ‘angular’. The arms should preferably be concealed discreetly, by no means placed in front of the body. And above all, ‘it’s vital to remember that the main thing is the head, and everything that draws attention away from it constitutes an artistic error’.

Probably neither Henryk Sienkiewicz nor the artists who photographed him (and certainly not Jan Mieczkowski, who died in 1889) could have had time to familiarise themselves with Pizzighelli’s textbook. Nonetheless, the rules of portrait photography seem to have been familiar to those in the know. What proves this is a tableau made for the 25th anniversary of the future Nobel Prize winner’s work, celebrated on 22 December 1900.

Although almost none of the nine portraits of the writer follow the rule regarding the position of the head in relation to the body, all of them feature a rounded shoulder line, and – most importantly – in most of them, the background is neutral or erased, which makes the viewer focus on the sitter’s face. It’s only in the last, newest photograph of Sienkiewicz that we see a mature man sitting in an armchair surrounded by books and knick-knacks scattered over his desk and around the room. This was likely a deliberate choice, emphasising the profession and stateliness of the author of Trylogia (The Trilogy). Be that as it may, if the writer lived in the 21st century and ran a personal website, he would have plenty of options from among which to choose his profile picture.

Judging by the number of portraits of Sienkiewicz now easily available online, he likely didn’t shy away from having his picture taken. However, Agnieszka Kuniczuk, a scholar researching his oeuvre, argues that, although the writer was a community worker and got involved in a large number of initiatives, he didn’t necessarily like to be promoted. It’s possible, then, that the many photos of Sienkiewicz testify primarily to the writer’s enormous popularity, which rose further after he was awarded the Nobel Prize (in 1905, ed.). Enthusiasts of historical novels wanted to have a portrait of their hero, and owners of photographic studios were happy to cater to (and profit from!) the needs of their customers.

#buildingacommunity

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'To Henryk Siemiradzki Warsaw 1877', tableau with portrait of Henryk Siemiradzki & 159 portraits of representatives of Warsaw society, photographer: Konrad Brandel, graphic artist: Wojciech Gerson, photo: National Museum in Warsaw

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Let’s return to one of the ideas behind the exhibition in the National Museum in Warsaw, which presents the tableau as ‘a tool of social integration and relationship building, just like contemporary social media’ (trans. AP). Let’s take a closer look at an 1877 tableau dedicated to Henryk Siemiradzki. The miniature portraits of 3 women (placed close to the portrait of the main protagonist) and 156 men – Warsaw’s intellectual elite – are placed symmetrically on an illustration made by Gerson. In the background, we see the coat of arms of the city, a fragment of a panoramic view from the tower of the Royal Castle, two almost identical trees, and an artist’s accessory – a palette.

The story behind the tableau, however, seems more interesting than its artistic flair. It goes like this: At the beginning of May 1877, the painter, who by then had already gained recognition in European artistic circles, was visiting Warsaw. On this occasion, a party for over 300 people was thrown in the Resursa Obywatelska (Citizens’ Club) Palace on Saturday, 5 May. The guests included Wojciech Gerson, the vice-director of the Society of Fine Arts (Towarzystwo Sztuk Pięknych) in Warsaw; Jan Walery Królikowski as a representative of the theatre community; and J. M. Kamiński, speaking on behalf of the legal community. Members of the press were, of course, present as well. To propose a toast, the publisher of Kurier Codzienny (The Daily Courier), Karol Kucz, gave a rhymed speech, whose fragment went as follows:

And let this feast, through whose bond united

Are we under the sign of brotherhood:

Both with the heart and with a kind word

Bind us, fellow countrymen, and our guest.

***

Master! Your flair knows no bounds,

Since all hardships your hand overcomes;

As proven by your ‘Christ and Sinner’

And your ‘Nero’s Torches’.

[trans. AP]

The whole event was described by the following Monday’s Kurier Warszawski (The Warsaw Currier), which mentioned Konrad Brandel, who attended the party and who ‘decided to assemble a group portrait of Warsaw worshippers of the master to gift to him as a keepsake of the celebration’. A call was made for all those wishing to participate to submit, within a week, their calling cards so that they could be copied. In this way, the photographer composed a tableau which now informs us who the enthusiasts and followers of Siemiradzki were. Can anyone recognise all the individuals?

Much easier to identify would be those depicted in the photographic composition created for Aleksander Rajchman, the director of the Warsaw Philharmonic. The 1906 tableau features the portraits of the members of the orchestra. All the images are signed, even the ones that aren’t there (held in the National Museum’s collection is the original collage, hence the missing – detached – portraits).

#wherearethewomen

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Tableau including nine portraits of Polish writers: Adam Mickiewicz, Eliza Orzeszkowa, Klementyna Hoffmanowa, Deotyma, Stanisław Staszic, Wincenty Pol, Zygmunt Krasiński, Juliusz Słowacki, Joachim Lelewel, photo: Muzeum Narodowe w Warszawie; tableau including nine portraits of Polish writers: Józef Ignacy Kraszewski, Julian Ursyn Niemcewicz, Władysław Syrokomla, Teofil Lenartowicz, Zygmunt Kaczkowski, Józef Korzeniowski, Bohdan Zaleski, Antoni Edward Odyniec, Julian Bartoszewicz, photo: National Museum in Warsaw

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Let’s investigate writers. Who might Józef Ignacy Kraszewski have kept in touch with? According to a tableau from around 1875 made by an unknown author, his group of friends and acquaintances included Julian Ursyn Niemcewicz, Władysław Syrokomla, Teofil Lenartowicz, Zygmunt Kaczkowski, Józef Korzeniowski, Bohdan Zaleski, Antoni Edward Odyniec and Julian Bartoszewicz. Perhaps the author of Stara baśń (An Ancient Tale) didn’t know all of them personally, but as a press editor and publicist he surely must have had an expansive network of contacts. Or perhaps some of the names found their way there by accident, and the author of the tableau simply intended to depict a number of celebrated intellectuals in one picture? Another thing makes one wonder, though – the absence of women in his inner circle.

Adam Mickiewicz is a whole other story. A tableau made at around the same time as Kraszewski’s also includes the portraits of three female writers – Deotyma, Klementyna Hoffmanowa, Eliza Orzeszkowa – alongside male writers Zygmunt Krasiński, Juliusz Słowacki, Joachim Lelewel, Stanisław Staszic and Wincenty Pol. The photograph placed in the middle depicts the Polish bard holding a pilgrim’s staff. Tableau friends (just like Facebook friends) don’t necessarily have to like each other (e.g. Mickiewicz and Słowacki), as long as they were up to date on the actions of their competitor.

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Tableau composed of sixteen oval portraits of Polish actresses & women writers: Jadwiga Łuszczewska (Deotyma), Jadwiga Czaki, Aleksandra Kazimiera Rakiewicz, Marcelina Sembrich-Kochańska, Bronisława Dowiakowska, Helena Marcello-Palińska, Romana Popiel, Maria Deryng-Walewska, Romana Popiel, Helena Modrzejewska, Helena Modrzejewska, Narcyza Żmichowska, Waleria Marrené (Morzkowska from first marriage), Eliza Orzeszkowa, Helena Modrzejewska, Klementyna Hoffmanowa, Warsaw, Kostka & Mulert photographic studio (1872 to ca. 1907), photo: National Museum in Warsaw

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What’s particularly interesting is a tableau composed of 16 portraits of women only – writers and actresses – placed in four columns and four rows: (from the upper left corner) Jadwiga Łuszczewska (Deotyma), Jadwiga Czaki, Aleksandra Kazimiera Rakiewicz, Marcelina Sembrich-Kochańska, Bronisława Dowiakowska, Helena Marcello-Palińska, Romana Popiel, Maria Deryng-Walewska, Popiel for a second time, Helena Modrzejewska twice, Narcyza Żmichowska, Waleria Morzkowska, Eliza Orzeszkowa, Modrzejewska for the third time, Klementyna Hoffmanowa.

It was made around 1875 in a photographic studio located at 40 Krakowskie Przedmieście. Julian Kostka and Ludwik Mulert, who enjoyed a reputation as conscientious craftsmen, bought the atelier from Karol Beyer. The rectangular, minimalistic collage might lack extraordinary aesthetic appeal, but it stands out from other photographic tableaux, which usually depicted exclusively or almost exclusively men. The 19th-century tableau is also an excellent reflection of social relations in terms of gender equality and the profession of the artist.

Translated from Polish by Anna Potoczny

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