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This portrait of the De Lesseps family was taken about 1888-89 by Nadar. This is one of the several takes. Despite the hair bows on all the younger children, several are in fact boys. The rifles held by two children almost assures us that they are boys, but as explained in the accompanying text, there are many other reasons as well. The older boys are easy: Bertrand (14 years ), Mattieu (19), and Ishmael(18). The older girls are also fairly easy. The younger children are more difficult. I have
assumed the photo was taken in the Summer (Say June) 1889. Giselle was born on December 16, 1885 so she would have been 3½. So that is her on the goat. That is my starting point. Age progression is not easy.
We know that at the time of the photo the children's ages (Years and
months) were approximately Matthieu (18.10) Ishmael (17.9) Ferdinande
(16.8) Bertrand and Consuelo (14.4) Helene (13.0) Solange (11.10) Paul
(8.11) Robert (7.2) Jacques (6.0) Giselle (3.6) Hoping I can spot them
by age then the people in the photo are:-
Back Row : Bertrand, Mattieu, Mme DeL, Ishmael , Consuleo.
Front Row: Solange, Helene (reading), Jacques(on stool) , Giselle (on
goat) M. DeL, Robert (on stool?) Ferdinande, Paul (with rifle)
I have puzzled over this for some time and compared it with the other
photos taken in the same session. I think I now have it right. The
difficulty I have had is deciding which is Consuelo, which is Helene and
which is Sloange? I thought the girl reading the book looked younger
than the girl at the back so have opted for her as Helene and the girl
standing beside is the youngest of the three so she must be Solange. I
have no doubts about who are the boys. They are Jaques on the stool,
Paul with the rifle and Robert sitting just behind Ferdinande to her left.
It is interesting that Bertrand, Matthieu, and Ishmael are now dressed
as young men but Paul, Jaques, and Robert are still in dresses of a very feminine style, idendical to their younger sisters, and like their sisters wear hair bows.
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