Carte-de-Visite Portrait of Wendell Phillips, c. 1871-1874.
Boston, Massachusetts: Antoine Sonrel, 121 Washington Street, 1871–1874. Albumen photograph on original mount with printed Sonrel studio backstamp. No other examples of this pose located in online institutional collections. Fine condition. Item #Cat345
A studio portrait of the abolitionist and reform leader Wendell Phillips (1811–1884), shown seated at a table holding a small bundle of papers or pamphlets. Phillips, one of the most prominent antislavery orators in the United States, continued to play an active role in national reform politics after the war, advocating for Black civil rights during Reconstruction and supporting federal enforcement of the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments. Phillips argued that emancipation was incomplete without political equality, pressing for Black suffrage, land redistribution in the South, and continued federal protection of freedpeople. During the late 1860s and 1870s he remained a visible public lecturer on Reconstruction policy and also aligned himself with the labor reform movement, briefly serving as president of the American Anti-Slavery Society and later supporting the Greenback movement.
The photograph was produced by Antoine Sonrel (1827–1912), a French-born artist and photographer who worked in Boston from the mid-1850s. Sonrel was originally trained as a lithographer and produced illustrated plates for American scientific and educational publications before establishing a photographic studio. From 1871–1874, according to local directories published during those years, he operated at 121 Washington Street in Boston, advertising portrait photography alongside lithographic and illustrative work. This example appears to represent an unrecorded studio pose of Phillips by Sonrel, distinct from the better-known Brady and Warren studio portraits circulated during the same period. A particularly nice image of Phillips in his later years, with fine contrast.
Price: $300.00