Man

Studio portrait of a Polish man, standing, wearing a heavy coat, described in a handwritten note on the reverse by Arthur Evans as being ‘to [his] mind a strongly Finnish type’.

Photographer: Ignacy Krieger studio (Krakow, Poland), labelled ‘J. Krieger’
Date of photogaph: Circa 1870
Continent: Europe
Geographical area: Central and Eastern Europe
Country: Poland
Region/Place: Krakow
Cultural group: European Polish ? | European Finnish ?
Format: Carte de visite, hand-coloured
Size: 110 x 69 mm
Acquisition: Joan Evans. Donated August 1941

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Exhibition label: ‘One of eight cartes de visite collected or purchased by Arthur Evans and, like the rest of the material in the case, donated to the Pitt Rivers Museum after his death by his half-sister Joan Evans in 1941. [...] This example is one of four hand-painted cartes de visite by the Ignacy Krieger studio in Krakow, Poland. It clearly reminded Evans of his travels in Finland, for he has signed his initials and recorded his opinion of the subject on the reverse: “To my mind a strongly Finnish type”.’ Source: ‘Travels in Finland and Bosnia-Herzegovina: An Ethnographic Collection of Sir Arthur Evans’, exhibition curated by Philip Grover, Pitt Rivers Museum, University of Oxford, 29 April to 1 September 2013.

Primary documentation: ‘[p.588] Dr. JOAN EVANS, from the property of the late SIR ARTHUR EVANS, Youlbury, Boars Hill, Oxford. [List of items follows]’; ‘[p.590] ‘5 Coloured photographs - CRACOW types’: Pitt Rivers Museum accession records (Donations X, 1937–1941), pp.588, 590. In negative: ‘134’ (written on original negative). Notes on mount: ‘J. KRIEGER/ W. KRAKOWIE’ (printed on mount card); ‘To my mind a strongly Finnish type,/ A[rthur]. J[ohn]. Evans’ (written in black ink on reverse of mount card).

Research notes: This carte de visite has been identified as a photograph by Ignacy Krieger, taken from the printed information on the reverse. Ignacy Krieger (1817–1889) – who signed his cartes de visite ‘J. Krieger, Krakow’ – has been described as Krakow’s most outstanding photographer of the mid- to late nineteenth century; his son Natan Krieger (1841–1903) also became a photographer.