Camille-Léon-Louis Silvy (1834-1910) was a French photographer, primarily active in London.
Silvy learned photography from his friend, Count Olympe Aguado, in 1857, and became a member of the Société française de photographie in 1858. He then moved to London and opened a portrait studio at 38 Porchester Terrace, Bayswater, becoming a member of the Photographic Society in 1859.
Sitters in Silvy's portraits include Princess Mary Adelaide of Cambridge, Queen Emma of Hawaii, Lady Amberley, Harriet Martineau, Adelina Patti and Frederick Robson. He also photographed many members of the British royal family.
Silvy closed his studio and returned to France in 1868. He himself believed that his nervous system had been damaged by exposure to potassium cyanide in the darkroom but it more likely that he suffered from manic depression. The last thirty years of his life were spent in a succession of hospitals, sanatoria and convalescent homes.
These gorgeous pictures of famous ladies from The Library of Nineteenth-Century Photography that he photographed from between 1860 and 1865.
Silvy learned photography from his friend, Count Olympe Aguado, in 1857, and became a member of the Société française de photographie in 1858. He then moved to London and opened a portrait studio at 38 Porchester Terrace, Bayswater, becoming a member of the Photographic Society in 1859.
Sitters in Silvy's portraits include Princess Mary Adelaide of Cambridge, Queen Emma of Hawaii, Lady Amberley, Harriet Martineau, Adelina Patti and Frederick Robson. He also photographed many members of the British royal family.
Silvy closed his studio and returned to France in 1868. He himself believed that his nervous system had been damaged by exposure to potassium cyanide in the darkroom but it more likely that he suffered from manic depression. The last thirty years of his life were spent in a succession of hospitals, sanatoria and convalescent homes.
These gorgeous pictures of famous ladies from The Library of Nineteenth-Century Photography that he photographed from between 1860 and 1865.
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| Elizabeth Wellesley, Duchess of Wellington, 1860 |
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| Lady Caroline Pratt, 1860 |
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| Lady Catherine Berkeley, 1860 |
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| Lady Florence Paget, 26 October 1860 |
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| Lady Jocelyn, 1860 |
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| Lydia Thompson, 1860 |
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| Miss Rosa Walsh, 1860 |
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| Mlle. de Gayangos, 25 September 1860 |
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| Frances, Countess of Waldegrave, 24 February 1861 |
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| Miss Charlotte Frances Frederica Seymour, 16 March 1861 |
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| Miss Crawfurd, London, 25 September 1861 |
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| Miss Eliza Horatia Frederica Seymour, 16 March 1861 |
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| Viscountess Somerton, née Caroline Susan Augusta Barrington, 24 May 1861 |
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| Miss Elizabeth Clayton, 24 May 1862 |
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| Miss Wood, 28 July 1862 |
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| Misses Nora and Mary Lees, 16 June 1862 |
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| Adelina Patti, 22 June 1864 |
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| Miss Emily Tenart, 18 July 1864 |
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| Queen Emma of Hawaii, 16 September 1865 |
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| Adelina Patti, ca. 1860s |
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| Carlotta Leclercq, ca. 1860s |
