Description:

Poe Edgar

Sepia toned carte de visite of Romantic-era poet Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849), published by Edward Anthony after a photographic negative from Mathew Brady's National Portrait Gallery. The oval inset albumen print photo of Poe at center appears above a facsimile of his signature and “Brady, N.Y.”. Copyright information appears below: “Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1861 … ”. Labeled “Published by E. Anthony, 501 Broadway, New York. From Photographic Negative from Brady’s National Portrait Gallery” verso. In very good to near fine condition with isolated discoloration and fly specks, measuring 2.375" x 4.125".

Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849) significantly influenced American literature. His imaginative, macabre, and poignant poems, essays, and short stories, like masterpieces “The Raven” (1845) and “Annabel Lee” (1849), intrigued and repulsed contemporaries by turns. Poe’s work, as well as his mysterious death at age 40 in a Baltimore street, have proved a well-spring to American and European writers, composers, and artists.

Poe embraced the new medium of photography, sitting for at least eight portraits in the last years of his life. The most celebrated portrait of Poe remains the so-called “Ultima Thule” portrait taken by Edwin Hartwell Manchester (1820-1904) of Masury & Hartshorn Studio in Providence, Rhode Island in 1848, just a few days after Poe’s aborted suicide attempt. Mathew Brady reproduced the Manchester portrait of Poe, but included a few notable differences in clothing, hair, and gaze.

Mathew Brady (1822-1896), a well-established New York-based photographer, reproduced our carte de visite sometime in the 1860s when it was protected by Congress copyright. Brady had a successful photography studio in New York, and closely collaborated with fellow Manhattan photographer Edward Anthony (1819-1888). In addition to photography services, Anthony’s firm sold supplies, backdrops, and props to the public.

In 1861, when Anthony’s carte de visite after Brady’s National Portrait Gallery negative appeared on the market, Poe was still a controversial figure. In the immediate aftermath of his death, Poe was widely seen as a morally degenerate madman whose prose was prompted by nothing but drug-induced hallucination. Later, Poe’s reputation would improve in direct correlation with an increased appreciation of his literary genius.

A haunting Brady/Anthony portrait of the Romantic poet taken in the year before his death!

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