Original albumen print, cabinet card mount with the stamp of the Gerschel studio. Bottom margin skillfully restored, a trace a folding in the left corner.
Extremely rare signed inscription by Alfred Dreyfus in the top margin: “Souvenir reconnaissant et affectueux. A. Dreyfus” (“Grateful and affectionate souvenir”).
This portrait was taken by Charles Gerschel on September 27, 1899 in the garden of Dreyfus' brother-in-law Joseph Valabrègue in Carpentras. A week after his official pardon, the captain had come to Carpentras seeking isolation and rest while awaiting his rehabilitation.
We have only been able to locate one other copy of this photograph, inscribed to Bernard Lazare, now in the Musée de Bretagne. This same museum has a letter from Charles Gerschel to the captain's wife Lucie Dreyfus proving the rarity of these portraits: “I did not put any prints out there other than to give (and not to sell, I insist on this point) to a few faithful and devoted friends. As for the portraits of the captain [Dreyfus], I learned that one of my employees took the liberty of giving them to a dealer. By telephone I immediately had this traffic stopped.”
Original photographic portraits of Dreyfus are rare and this one was printed in small numbers for Alfred Dreyfus and probably as a gift to his supporters.
Provenance: library of Anselme Weill.
Dr. Anselme Weill was charged with the difficult task of announcing to the Dreyfus family the news of Alfred's life sentence and formal degradation. In his book Affaire Dreyfus, L'Honneur d'un patriote, Vincent Duclert writes: “Mathieu [Dreyfus, Alfred's brother] had asked a relative of the Hadamard family, Dr. Weill, to wait for the announcement of the verdict and to bring the news to the apartment on rue de Châteaudun, where a small group of friends and family members was waiting. He arrived at half past seven in the evening.” He also reveals that Anselme Weill had testified on behalf of Alfred Dreyfus at his trial: “Other allegations could be rejected, for example those directed towards Dr. Weill, whose wife was a third cousin of Lucie Dreyfus. 'I attest, as the very frequent, almost daily relations that I had with him as a relative, as a doctor and as a friend, allow me to do so, I attest that Dreyfus was always a perfect husband, and that I never knew him to be a gambler nor a libertine. However, it is just the opposite that I am made to say, and I protest against these allegations. I have nothing to add', he declared to the court.”
