French, before 1910, silver bromide photo postcard, no. 87 from a series.
Yesterday, March 14, the exhibition ‘Wondere Wereld’ (‘Wonderous World) started in the Kunsthal in Rotterdam, dedicated to early post cards. The experiment with the available techniques in photography, lead to hilarious worlds: there were a lot of smiling visitors.
An example is this phantasy I discussed during the opening with the Finnish art historian Harri Kalha who researched the photograped post card: a voluptuous beauty gazes up in a dreamy, Baroque like manner. She is dressed in draperies and jewelry that evokes both ancient as Oriental Egypt, confirmed by the décor of pyramids and palm trees. A bit a-typical in this context is the prominent architectural structure that looks more Roman. It is hard to tell because of the technique: the photographed lady was probably cut out, placed on photographs of a dramatic sky and the two ancient buildings. These were accentuated by drawings on the original. This collage was photographed again, with the post card as the final result.
On top, the black foreground was filled with a sphinx: it is drawn, yet hard to see if a photo was used as the base. The form is Baroque, with the egyptianesque lying pose and the headdress as a modern variation (like used in Baroque garden statues) on the royal nemes headdres. The gender also swopped from the male pharao to the female.
http://www.kunsthal.nl/22-768-Wondere-Wereld.html