The portrait of sadness: the representation of the nineteenth century public character in carte-de-visite in the Francisco Rodrigues Collection

Abstract

The text discusses the alignment of the visual codes in the nineteenth century portrait, especially in the carte de visite format, to a broader range of social codes that disciplines the presentation form of the image of public character. The initial assumption is the absence of laugh in the photographs of the collection as an authoritative element for the visual composition of the nineteenth-century portrait. The analysis corpus is photographs from the Francisco Rodrigues Collection, housed in Fundação Joaquim Nabuco in Recife. Thus, the goal is to understand, using the historiographical and iconographical approach, the interdependence and complementarity existing between the social environment and photography. This situation produces a contract among the photographer; the subject and pose as sensemaking strategy that will tout the self-image of the character and guide the staging protocols for the camera.