Scarce original 19th-century photographic portrait card depicting Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712–1778), the enormously influential Enlightenment philosopher and author of The Social Contract, Émile, and the Confessions.The mount bears a period manuscript identification beneath the portrait reading approximately:“J. J. Rousseau — d’après nature par Latour.”The inscription refers to the celebrated portrait tradition associated with Maurice Quentin de La Tour, who portrayed Rousseau during the 18th century. The French phrase d’après nature denotes a portrait made from the living model / from nature, rather than an imaginary likeness. This card is a 19th-century photographic reproduction of the earlier Rousseau portrait, mounted on period cardstock in the carte-de-visite format.The reverse is blank. Card has rounded/clipped corners, overall age toning, scattered spotting/soiling, a small stain to the upper reverse, and minor surface/edge wear consistent with age. Please inspect all photographs carefully as they form part of the condition description.An unusually evocative piece of early photographic ephemera relating to one of the defining intellectual figures of the Enlightenment, with excellent crossover appeal to collectors of philosophy, French history, Enlightenment material, early photography, portrait photography, and Jean-Jacques Rousseau.Original 19th-century photographic card — not a modern reproduction.Exact date and photographer/publisher are presently unidentified, so I am dating the piece conservatively to the late 19th century.
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