Ziem (1821-1911)
A photogravure portrait of the painter Félix Ziem, published in Paris by Georges Petit in 1911, the year of his death. It shows an elderly man with a white beard, dark skullcap and loose white cravat against a near-black ground, with the signature in the lower left. A designer might take its dramatic low-key lighting and tonal range from deep shadow to pale highlights as a model for moody, focused portraiture.
