Author: Gambetta, Leon (1838-1882). French statesman prominent during and after the Franco-Prussian War who, as an attorney, defended the journalist Delescluze and opposed the 1851 coup d'etat.
Title: Leon Gambetta": A Richly Toned Woodburytype Oval Portrait of the French Statesman Leon Gambetta Who Opposed the 1851 Coup D'Etat and Played a Prominent Role During the Franco-Prussian War.
Description: Lock and Whitfield, circa [1875]. [1875]. - A richly hued 4-1/2 inch high oval woodburytype portrait of Leon Gambetta mounted onto 11-1/4 inch high by 8-1/2 inch wide stiff cream stock. A light gray printed decorative frame highlights the image. The subject's name is printed in the same light gray centered within the lower half of the sheet. "Lock and Whitfield" and "Woodbury Process" are printed at left and right along the lower edge. There is a light vertical crease in the mat and a tiny stain to it's right edge. Very good.

The French statesman Leon Gambetta (1838-1882) was admitted to the bar in 1859 and the Conference Mole in 1861. In 1868, Gambetta was selected to defend the journalist Delescluze who was being prosecuted for promoting the erection of a monument to Baudin who'd been killed resisting the 1851 coup d'etat. Gambetta used the occasion to both attack the coup d'etat and the government. He was elected to the assembly by both a district in Paris and one in Marseille. Initially opposing the war with Prussia he gradually came to accept the patriotic line and called for strong measures following the disaster at Sedan. It was he who proclaimed the deposition of the emperor at the corps legislatif and the establishment of a republic at the Hotel de Ville. As one of the first members of the new Government of National defense, he became Minister of the Interior. When the delegation to organize resistance in the provinces failed, Gambetta set off in the "Armand-Barbes", a coal gas-filled balloon to take control as minister of the interior and of war in Tours. With his assistant secretary of war and the young officer of engineers Freycinet, Gambetta organized an army which might have successfully relieved Paris if Metz had not fallen. He later faded from politics after his republican party was defeated by the conservatives and monarchists.

Both a printing process and the print which it produces, Woodburytype was invented and patented by Walter B. Woodbury in 1864. A photomechanical process, Woodbury type prints are made from exposing a dichromate-sensitized sheet of gelatin to UV light shining through a photographic negative. Each area of the gelatin hardens to a depth in proportion to the amount of exposure to the light before it is then soaked in warm water. The relief image is then pressed onto a sheet of lead to create an intaglio metal printing plate. Very good .

Keywords: HISTORY; PHOTOGRAPHY; PHOTOMECHANICAL PRINTING PROCESS; PORTRAIT; PRINT; WOODBURYTYPE; ART; 19TH CENTURY; NINETEENTH CENTURY; LEON GAMBETTA; FRENCH STATESMAN; ASSEMBLY; FRANCE; FRANCO-PRUSSIAN WAR; DEFENDED DELESCLUZE; RESISTED THE COUP D'ETAT; MINIST

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