Mother with Two Children, c. 1855. Jean-Baptist Frénet (French, 1814-1889). Salted paper print from a collodion negative; paper: 23.1 x 16.5 cm (9 1/8 x 6 1/2 in.); matted: 50.8 x 40.6 cm (20 x 16 in.). After anti-government political activity closed off his professional opportunities as a painter, Jean-Baptiste Frénet took up photography in 1850 and a decade later opened a commercial portrait studio. He preferred simple, plain settings and relied on sitters interactions to reveal their personalities and relationships. This family grouping, probably taken for personal pleasure, offers a sense of casual immediacy unusual for the time in both painted and photographic portraiture.