Casting of the Head of a Bull

Robert grew up at the Royal Porcelain Factory in the village of Sèvres on the outskirts of Paris and in 1847 succeeded his father as head of the glass-painting workshop. Following the Revolution of 1848, with royal commissions halted, Robert and other artists at Sèvres turned their interest in art and chemistry to the new medium of photography on paper. In the early 1850s, he created portraits of family and friends, still lifes of the factory’s porcelain products, views of the surrounding landscape, as well as photographs that might aid artists or designers, such as this plaster head of a bull. From a paper negative such as this one—waxed for added transparency—Robert could have printed multiple positive prints, a decided advantage over the one-of-a-kind medium of daguerreotype.