Henry Cole

This is an example of a Photosculpture, a technique which became popular in Paris in the 1860s, practised above all by François Willème (1830-1905). Simultaneous photographs were taken of the subject, and these were then used to create a three-dimensional work, often a portrait. This bust depicts the first Director of the South Kensington Museum (later the V&A), Henry Cole (1808-1882). His Diary for 1867 notes that he went for a sitting for a Photosculpture at the Photo Sculpture Gallery in Paris in September 1867. He also notes the bust was modelled by 'Lanzirotti'; this must have been the sculptor Antonio Giovanni Lanzirotti (1839-1921), who worked in Paris in the mid-19th century. The sculpture was complete by 12 November of that year, again according to Cole's Diary.