In the Harvest Field, showing four models arranged as a Tableau vivant in a pumpkin and cornfield, was one of two photogravures from photographic views (“By the Lake” by Henry B. Vanderveer is the other) included in the small view album titled Selected Photo-Gravures, published in 1892 by the Frederick A. Stokes Company of New York. The other four photogravures-all by the Photogravure Company of New York– were done from paintings and include the titles Return from the Fête, An Eastern Dance, An Eastern Toilet, and The Honeymoon.

Emma Justine Farnsworth: 1860-1952

Original copy for this entry posted to Facebook on January 11, 2013:

A “living picture”, or “Tableau vivant”, the French term describing it, shows up occasionally in early examples of artistic photography. Think freeze modeling in an outdoor setting. The practice borrows from painting, of which we know early artistic photographers were fond of emulating. Emma Justine Farnsworth, (1860-1952) considered one of the top woman amateurs in the U.S., did a series of photographs using her neighbors around Albany, New York sometime around 1890. “In the Harvest Field” shows four models artfully arranged in a Tableau vivant, with the model in striped shirt at far right also appearing in Farnsworth’s later published work on this site titled “On the Fence.”