is this a pic of Petipa?

[Solor]

I found this page on Petipa on the Wikipedea free encyclopedia web site, and the pic someone put up doesnt look a thing like him to me.........

[Mel Johnson]

While the hairstyle seems all right for a Petipa ca. 1880, I wonder if this isn't Lucien. The signature seems to be just "Petipa". This sitter seems a bit stout for Marius.

[rg]

mel's hunch is a good one.

i have no other photos of lucien now at hand to check.

the attached is a russian carte de visite said to be MARIUS MARIUSOVICH PETIPA (an actor, b. 1850), Petipa's first-born son, eventually known as Marius I, by marie therese bourdin [d. 1855]).

i note the signed card linked here is a french one, so that might further support the lucien identification.

fyi: Marius Ivanovich Petipa had two sons named Marius, the second b. 1884, and also an actor. both i believe worked mostly in russia.

[silvy]

It does not look like Marius to me, either - but I may be mistaken

The pic was taken in France - did Petipa travel to France in c. 1880s?

Also, I have read recently that Wikipedia is not free from inaccuracies, as it is an Encyclopedia where everyone can contribute and the information is not checked.

[Solor]

really think that that photo is of someone else other than Marius Petipa.....It looks NOTHING like him.

Hers some pix of Marius Petipa -

http://img374.imageshack.us/my.php?image=m...spetipa32at.jpg

http://img374.imageshack.us/my.php?image=m...spetipa29yx.png

http://img374.imageshack.us/my.php?image=m...spetipa14bu.png

http://img374.imageshack.us/my.php?image=m...spetipa42ma.png

[carbro]

Thanks, Solor.

Pretty convincing evidence that Wikipedia's photo is not our guy. You answered your own question.

[Mel Johnson]

Marius was always on the slim side. I can't say that I know much of anything for sure about Lucien after he became a ballet master at the Paris Opera in 1865. One thing is for sure though, the handwriting is a Latin cursive, not Cyrillic - but then, Marius never quite caught on to Russian, either!

I wouldn't bet the rent, but I'd still look to Lucien.

[Amy Reusch]

The nose doesn't look as pointed, does it? On the other hand, how could one tell the way photos were often retouched...

[leonid17]

I found this page on Petipa on the Wikipedea free encyclopedia web site, and the pic someone put up doesnt look a thing like him to me.........

Heres a link to the page -

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marius_Petipa

Heres the pic in higher resolution so anyone who can read the writing on it can perhaps tell us what it says -

http://img221.imageshack.us/img221/7246/petipa9yr.th.jpg

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

The photo signed Petipa and Versaille is I would think taken in the 1890's. It is not Marius. Lucien died in 1898 aged 83. Is the man in the photograph old enough? The head shape is Petipa like, as is the receding slightly wavy hair.

[drb]

From the text, which seems to be referring to his best photo of his friend Wekerlin, it could be the minor French composer (serenades and such) J-B Wekerlin. Wekerlin, 1821-1910 was about three years Petipa's junior, and they well may have moved in the same artistic circles in Petipa's pre-Russian period. Perhaps the photo was from the 1860's. Photography was pretty solid by that time, as we know in this country from photos of the American Civil War.

[Mel Johnson]

The photograph has the sepia tint typical of salt and albumen prints which dominated the art from about 1850-1880. Some photographers probably continued to use the older technology even after it was succeeded by better, faster methods, much as Matthew Brady continued to make daguerreotypes into the 1860s, when he finally retired from active photography because of the encroaching blindness and twitching brought about from heavy metal fume poisoning from the older process. Salt and albumen prints were much safer, and so many photographers adopted the technique. It would be nice to see this directly, to see which technology is used.