![[Female Nude in Studio] by Franck-François-Genès Chauvassaignes](/everydaypassion/images/met-282602.jpg)
[Female Nude in Studio]
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This salted paper print was made in the earliest decade of photography's commercial life, when the medium was still forming its conventions. Its maker, Franck-François-Genès Chauvassaignes (French, born 1831, died after 1900), produced it between 1856 and 1859.
The salted paper process, one of the first photographic printing methods, uses paper sensitized with salt and silver and exposed in contact with a glass negative, yielding soft, matte tones. The print measures 19.1 by 15.2 cm.
Studio nudes of this period were often produced as académies—photographs made as reference studies for painters and sculptors, a category that skirted the boundary between artistic aid and commercial imagery. The print entered the Metropolitan Museum's collection in 1998.
Background drawn from The Met
Today's poem
Adieu to a Soldier.
ADIEU, O soldier! You of the rude campaigning, (which we shared,) The rapid march, the life of the camp, The hot contention of opposing fronts—the long manoeuver, Red battles with their slaughter,—the stimulus—the strong, terrific game, Spell of all brave and manly hearts—the trains of Time through you, and like of you, all fill’d, With war, and war’s expression. Adieu, dear comrade! Your mission is fulfill’d—but I, more warlike, Myself, and this contentious soul of mine, Still on our own campaigning bound, Through untried roads, with ambushes, opponents lined, Through many a sharp defeat and many a crisis—often baffled, Here marching, ever marching on, a war fight out—aye here, To fiercer, weightier battles give expression.
Walt Whitman · Public domain
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Walt Whitman (1819–1892) is often called the father of free verse and is considered one of the most influential poets in American literature. He incorporated both transcendentalism and realism in his work, and his 1855 collection Leaves of Grass proved controversial in its time, described by some as obscene for its overt sensuality.
"Adieu to a Soldier" turns on a shift in register. The first stanza bids farewell to a comrade of "the rude campaigning" — the marches, camps, and "red battles" of literal war. The second stanza redirects that vocabulary inward: the speaker declares himself "more warlike," bound to his own campaigning through "untried roads" and "many a sharp defeat," giving expression to "fiercer, weightier battles" of the soul.
Written in Whitman's characteristic free verse, the poem uses military imagery not to celebrate combat but to figure the ongoing struggles of the inner life against the finished mission of the departing soldier.
Background drawn from PoetryDB & Wikipedia