Group nude study, after the antique, c.1910s

Mante was a photographer, inventor, self-taught chemist and professional musician. He contributed many improvements to photographic and photomechanical developments in the mid-19th century and is known to have experiemneted with techniques to produce images in colour as early as the 1850s. Goldschmidt was a wealthy younger photographer who won a gold medal for his colour work at the 1892 Paris Exposition and later married Mante's daughter. He had an elaborate studio complete with painted backdrops and exotic props and many of their photographs were taken there or in Goldschmidt's home.