About This Image

The photographer's full name is André Philippe Alfred Regnier, comte de Gronau, Duc de Massa (1837-1913).

Regnier photographed in the Indre and the Loire provinces of France and generally lived at the Chateau de Montcontour. The duke had the reputation of being a bit of dandy. He dressed up in costumes and photographed himself and his friends. He wrote and produced plays.

Here we see the Duc up to his antics. He and a friend are posed pulling a cart, being driven by a few lady friends. He also photographed several castles that he owned. He was an amateur photographer, who worked with waxed paper and glass negatives, and received a bronze medal for his work at an exposition in Troyes in 1860.

See: "Primitifs de la Photographie: Le Calotype en France, 1843-1860" (Gallimard/BNF), p.303 for a more complete biography.

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