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Beryl Diana Vosburgh, who for many years ran Jubilee Photographica, a shop selling old photographs and photographic equipment, in Pierrepoint Row, Camden Passage, London, died on 6 July 2016.

Beryl was a familiar face at the early auctions of photography and the name 'Jubilee' would be heard repeatedly in the days when a buyer's name was called out in the auction room and printed in the realised price sheets. She attended the first photography fairs and was a long-serving committee member of the Historical Group of the Royal Photographic Society which she joined in 1973. She was a founding member of both the Group and the Magic Lantern Society. Her shop was one of the first in Britain specifically devoted to historical photography and only closed in 2002. 

Beryl Roques was born in 1932 in Edmonton, north London. She attended RADA where she met Richard 'Dick' Vosburgh, the actor, writer, lyricist and broadcaster. They married in 1953 and remained together until his death in 2007 living in a beautiful town house in London's Islington. They had a son and five daughters.

While she was studying at RADA she was snapped up to be one of the main anchors of the 1952 BBC Radio series: The Younger Generation Under 20 Parade. It was described in the Radio Times as 'A programme on things to read, see, and hear, presented mainly by under-twenties'. She starred in this weekly series throughout 1952-53. Her resulting acting career highlights included: Miss Phillips in BBC Radio's Mrs Dale's Diary; Princess February in The Golden Cage for Children's Hour; the 1954 Home Service series entitled Home and Away with Dora Bryan and the BBC Revue Orchestra; alongside Phyllis Calvert in Monday Matinee presents Craig's Wife; 1961 film: A Little of What She Fancied and 1962's Associated Rediffusion TV series No Hiding Place.

In 1965 she became one of the regular presenters of the popular BBC children's programme Play School. She presented 35 episodes of the show alongside regulars Eric Thompson, Derek Griffiths, Johnny Ball and Brian Cant.

In 1977 her real-life actress daughter Tilly Vosburgh played her offspring in Secret Diaries for Yorkshire Television (her other daughter was played by Sophie Thompson). Also in 1977 she performed in a Jubilee theatre show at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane. Beryl supported Dick's successful career in television, radio, theatre, film and magazine, often assisting him on projects when he had plays on Broadway, on tour and in the West End and looking after the children when Dick was heavily involved in a project.

She played various roles in the demo tapes for her husband's musicals: Windy City, A Day in Hollywood A Night in the Ukraine and A Saint She Ain't to name a few. Beryl appeared in Jango (1961).  Away from her acting and shop, she was a professional photographer, photographing theatrical productions and taking the Spotlight pictures of countless high-profile actors and actresses.

Michael Pritchard writes...As a boy in the 1980s I got to know Beryl through the RPS Historical Group. I remember visiting her shop, taking care to visit on a Wednesday or Saturday, when it was open. Beryl's shop included plenty of cartes de visite, stereocards, albums, stereoscopes, lantern slides, cameras and the more accessible end of the market. She had a particular interest in photographic jewellery. When one visited she was more likely than not to press a photograph in to your hand as a gift irrespective of whether you bought something. She regularly donated material to institutions or to individuals if she felt it was the right home for it. Beryl was kindly, knowledgeable and wonderful company over dinner at her College Cross house. 

Images: courtesy The RPS, The Photographic Journal, February 1975. 

UPDATE: Amy Vosburgh has been in contact with details of Beryl's funeral which will take place on 18 July at Golders Green Crematorium. Anyone wishing to attend is asked to contact her on 07866 718030.

UPDATE 2. Thank you to Amy for additional information about Beryl's film and television career. 

The History and Archives section of the German Photographic Society (Deutsche Gesellschaft für Photographie, DGPh) has recognised scientific research in the history and theory of photography since 1978.

The DGPh History of Photography Research Award 2016 will be open for all elements of research into photography’s many aspects. Besides aspects of traditional history and theory of photography, topics will be considered that deal with photography’s social meaning, or the impact that the medium has had on society. The applicant's work should represent an autonomous, innovative, and original contribution to these areas. The award is open to researchers from all fields.

Applications and manuscripts for the DGPh History of Photography Research Award may be submitted in either English or German. Applications should consist of a published or unpublished manuscript produced during the last two years before the deadline. Project outlines, or yet unfinished manuscripts etc.will not
be accepted.

Allocation will be the decision of an expert jury. The jury will publish its reasons to reward the winning entry. The jury consists of the chairpersons of the History and Archives section of the DGPh, the previous prize winner plus one or a group of invited councillor(s).

The award is endowed with a total of 3,000 Euro. The jury holds the right to split the prize between two applicants in equal parts. The award will be handed over at a public event organized by the DGPh.

Submission requirements are the following pdf-files:

• A complete manuscript as electronic file form
• An abstract of the submitted work (approx. 300-500 words)
• A curriculum vitae (résumé)
• A list of publications.

The final date for submissions is the 30 September, 2016. Submissions should be send online under:
http://www.dgph.de/sektionen/geschichte_archive/ausschreibung-dgph-forschungspreis-fuer-photographiegeschichte-2016

More information about the German Photographic Society: www.dgph.de

In 2015 I rediscovered the grave of Victorian photographer Robert Howlett and started researching his short life with the intention of producing his comprehensive biography.  As a consequence of his early death he left no will, diary, family documents or artefacts so this has been a considerable uphill task. 

His story has now taken shape with the help and goodwill of many in the world of 19th century photography, in many different locations, and the invaluable assistance of his family, but I welcome any further input from members and any images which may be Howlett related.  Many will know his IK Brunel portrait with the SS Great Eastern launching chains but there are several images exhibited in the 1850s which I would be delighted to trace.  Some new images have come to light in the course of my research and will accompany the story of his 27 year life, but there is always room for more!

The biography is intended to accompany a rededication of his grave which is in need of restoration after 159 years of Norfolk wind and rain.

Please contact me if you think you may have something of interest.

Thank you.

I am researching the Scottish photographer James Valentine (1815-1879) with the goal of a publication in mind. I would therefore welcome information on James Valentine specifically related to his earliest involvement in photography. Of particular interest to me is a comment in one of his obituaries that claimed he had ‘commenced photography at a very early period after its discovery’. While I have not yet seen evidence to support this, there is another, later account that also suggests James Valentine’s involvement with photography to have been early. The writer of the 1906 account, from The Philadelphia Photographer, had first met Valentine 65 years before, or in about 1841, at which time he was an engraver and small scale commercial printer, though apparently also experimenting with photography while in pursuit of other business:

‘He then from time to time wandered through certain parts of Scotland trying to get orders for lithographing the labels used by chemists and druggists, doing the work in a little shop in Dundee; at the same time doing a little in photography, although more as an amateur than a professional.’

The commentator added that Valentine’s early experiments with photography had included ‘views’ and portraits, and that he had ‘soon acquired considerable proficiency’. James Valentine’s printing business operated from 100 Murraygate in Dundee from 1845, for the next twelve years before changing premises. In 1850, he is said to have travelled to Paris to increase his photographic learning, studying there under either André-François Bulot or Auguste Belloc. The jury is still out on this photographer's identity, whose name was spelt in Valentine’s obituary 'Bulow', and who was described as ‘one of the most skilful photographers in that city’. Back in Dundee, James Valentine opened his new ‘Photographic Portrait Rooms’ at his Murraygate premises in 1851. This marked the beginnings of a photography business that would become probably the largest photographic (and later postcard) publishing company in the world.

I am aware of eight ambrotype studio portraits by Valentine, each impressed ‘J. Valentine, Dundee’ on their framing mats, but have not seen concrete evidence of him having ever produced Daguerreotypes. If any BPH member is aware of Daguerreotypes by James Valentine surviving in public or private collections, or knows of any further published reference, I would be very grateful to hear from them.

James Valentine, Portrait of a Young Girl, c.1856. Ambrotype. Ken Hall Collection 

This remarkable collection grew from Mike Simkin’s fascination with the pre-cinema moving image, with many fine rarities in every area: optical toys, magic lanterns, illuminants, books, catalogues and ephemera rounded off by the huge slide collection. Predominantly mahogany-mounted and hand-painted, it encompasses Isaac Knott Royal Polytechnic sets, Henry Langdon Childe chromatropes, dissolve sets, story sets and a multitude of mechanical slides, with many by Carpenter & Westley in all categories.

The Collection will be offered for auction in lots on 7 July 2016 by Special Auction Services. The printed and online catalogue is now available and can be seen online here: http://www.specialauctionservices.com/large/cm070716/index.html 

St Andrews Photography Festival has announced several events of interest to BPH readers. First up, on 1 August Dr Alison Morrison-Low will discuss the work of Dr John Adamson. View this and others at the Festival's Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/events/1733795436897095/

BBC Radio 4's In Our Time programme will look at the invention of photography on 7 July 2016. Melvyn Bragg and guests, Elizabeth Edwards, Alison Morrison-Low and Simon Schaffer, will discuss the development of photography in the 1830s, when techniques for 'drawing with light' evolved to the stage where, in 1839, both Daguerre and Fox Talbot made claims for its invention. These followed the development of the camera obscura, and experiments by such as Thomas Wedgwood and Nicéphore Niépce, and led to rapid changes in the 1840s as more people captured images with the Daguerreotype and calotype. These new techniques changed the aesthetics of the age and, before long, inspired claims that painting was now dead.

The programme will be available on the iPlayer shortly after broadcast. 

See: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b07j699g

Special Auction Services of Newbury is to auction a group of material relating to Arthur E Morton FRPS, a pioneer of early colour photography, both still and moving. He was an exponent of Autochrome and Paget colour process and Kinemacolour.  

The full catalogue which also includes the exceptional Mike Simkin magic lantern and pre-cinema collection is available here: http://www.specialauctionservices.com/large/cm070716/index.html. The Morton material is lots 314-371. 

I have just found out that the Bourne and Shepard Photo studio in Kolkata has closed. For more information:

http://www.dpreview.com/news/8668353651/after-176-years-bourne-shepard-kolkata-photography-studio-closes-its-doors

Several months ago, I acquired a number of very old British photo books at auction.  Plan to donate them to the library at Southern Methodist University.  Problem is that I have no way of ascertaining their value as can find no listings anywhere.  Any help or suggestions on how to proceed would be appreciated.  They include:

Yearbook of Photography 1867; G. Warton Simpson, editor; Office of Photographic News, publisher.

Yearbook of Photography 1881; H. Barden Pritchard, editor; Piper & Carter, publisher.

Yearbook of Photography 1887; Thomas Bolos, editor; Piper & Carter, publisher.  Includes a silver print.

Photography Annual 1892; Henry Strumey, editor; Iliffe & Son, publisher.

Photography Annual 1897; Henry Strumey, editor; Iliffe & Son, publisher.

Lighting in Photographic Studios; P.C. Duchochois; 1890.

Photography with Emulsions; Capt. W de Abney; Piper & Carter, publisher; 1885.

Due to a health related withdrawal I have again one space available for this fantastic 5-day Lacock Intensive Collodion Workshop (6-10 July 2016, Manger Barn, Lacock).

It goes down to the basics of collodion photography. You'll learn how to make strong collodion negatives and how to print them on albumen paper. This includes of course how to make albumen as well as the coating and sensitizing of your own photographic paper.

You can find detailed information on my website www.collodion.org.uk

If you can't make it this year, I'm already planning next years workshop, which will be either Going Big with the 20x16in camera or the dry collodion process.

Send PM for details.

The picture shows Lacock Abbey albumen print from whole-plate collodion negative, 2015.

'Pictorialism' as a loosely constituted, international movement advocating photography’s assimilation into the traditional fine arts, succeeded to the extent that it fostered widespread acceptance of the medium as 'art' prior to World War I, but failed in the post-War period as its aesthetic agenda was condemned as 'anti-modernist', agrarian, bourgeois, and imitative of an outmoded, idealizing painting.

The purpose of this symposium, and the retrospective exhibition of the works of Clarence H. White that it accompanies, is to reconsider and complicate the stylistic goals, methods, influences, politics, and social networks of photographers who identified as 'pictorialists' and yet produced works that ranged from book and magazine illustrations, commercial portraits, fashion photos, to Salon prints, and from sharp-focus, silver bromides to multiple-gums. White’s own career serves as a model for the ways that aspiring art photographers responded to changing economic, political, and aesthetic conditions from the fin-de-siècle to the Roaring Twenties, thus straining the very definition of what “pictorialism” might mean.

Our friends at the William Henry Fox Talbot Catalogue Raisonné project have announced the news that Brian Liddy, formerly curator of collections access at the National Media Museum, Bradford, has been appointed the project's first research assistant.

BPH will bring news of former NMeM staff in due course. 

Read more about Brian's appointment here: http://foxtalbot.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/blog/ and why not sign up for the weekly blog alert at the same time?

Two jobs are being advertised by the National Media Museum, Bradford. Curator of Photography and Photographic Technology, to manage, develop, research, interpret and present the collections of the National Media Museum, To work with a wide range of different partners – academics, enthusiasts, communities – to foster knowledge of the collections and their scientific, technological and cultural significance, and to inspire audience understanding of and engagement with these collections;

and Collections Project Manager,The National Media Museum is planning to transfer the Royal Photographic Society Collection to the V&A.  This project will enable the V&A to invest in cataloguing and digitising the collection in order to provide greater public access. This role offers an opportunity to play a central role in ensuring the future one of the best photography collections in the country.  You will be responsible for planning and co-ordinating efficient and effective delivery of the work packages to time and budget, in close collaboration with colleagues at NMeM and the V&A. You will bring together specialist teams and contractors, and liaise closely to consider and advise on opportunities, impacts, logistics and dependencies.

For full details see: https://vacancies.nmsi.ac.uk/VacancyDetails.aspx?FromSearch=True&MenuID=6Dqy3cKIDOg=&VacancyID=1351 and https://vacancies.nmsi.ac.uk/VacancyDetails.aspx?FromSearch=True&MenuID=6Dqy3cKIDOg=&VacancyID=1350

Autograph APB is to present the first major exhibition of photographs by Raphael Albert (1935-2009), cultural promoter and photographer of black beauty pageants in west London from the late 1960s to the 1980s. The exhibition runs from 8 July-24 September 2016 and admission is free.

For more than three decades, Albert documented hundreds of popular dance, music and community events while building up a special portfolio of portraits of aspiring models. His long and successful career as a promoter and chronicler of beauty pageants included the establishment of Miss Black and Beautiful, Miss West Indies in Great Britain, and Miss Grenada. Albert, who came to England from Grenada in 1953, also founded his own magazine Charisma in 1984, and associated modelling school. In response to contemporaneous mainstream fashion and lifestyle platforms where black women were largely absent or at best marginal, these competitions celebrated the global ‘Black is Beautiful’ aesthetic of the 1970s in a local context.

Together with the obligatory bathing costumes and high heels, contestants often sported large Afro hairstyles, inventing and reinventing themselves on stage while articulating a particular black femininity as part of a widely contested cultural performance. These pageants offered the opportunity to create a distinct space for Afro-Caribbean self-articulation, a wager against invisibility, and importantly, a site to challenge conventional notions of beauty implicated in the social, cultural, and political contexts of the time.

The exhibition's curator, Renée Mussai says: "This historical archive offers a unique and fascinating collection of rarely seen photographs that document the ambivalent cultural performance of gendered and raced identities at a particular historical conjuncture. Imbued with an exquisite, revolutionary sensuality and a certain joie de vivre, Raphael Albert’s photographs embody an aura of hedonistic confidence in a new generation of black women coming of age in Britain during the 1970s, fuelled by complex (body) politics of national identity, difference and desire."

After Albert’s death in 2009, Autograph ABP began working with two of the photographer’s daughters, Vikkie Albert and Susan Ibuanokpe, to preserve his extensive collection of negatives and prints - a dedicated portfolio is now represented as part of the Autograph ABP Archive & Research Centre.

The exhibition will showcase over 50 modern exclusive black and white fibre prints, colour and vintage photographs, as well as a selection of archive materials and ephemera. Many of these photographs are now shown for the first time as a curated selection, carefully selected and produced from original negatives.

Raphael Albert Raphael Albert (1935-2009) was born on the Caribbean island of Grenada. After moving to London in the 1950s, he studied photography at Ealing Technical College whilst working part-time at Lyons cake factory. Albert then became a freelance photographer working for black British newspapers such as West Indian World – for whom one of his first assignments was documenting Miss Jamaica. He also took pictures for The Gleaner, Caribbean Times and New World. In 1970 he established the local contest Miss Black and Beautiful, followed in 1974 by Miss Teenager of the West Indies in Great Britain and Miss West Indies in Great Britain. He organised and photographed numerous pageants celebrating black British beauty throughout the 1970s, 80s, and 90s and eventually founded his own modelling school. He remained committed to capturing the Caribbean communities in his London area throughout his life, often taking home-studio portrait photographs for local families, and avidly documenting weddings, christenings, and other social events. In 2007 Albert presented a Black History Month display of his work entitled Miss West Indies in Great Britain: Celebrating 30 Years of Beauty Pageants (1963-1993) at the Hammersmith and Fulham Information Centre.

See more here: http://autograph-abp.co.uk/exhibitions/miss-black-and-beautiful

Image: Raphael Albert, Miss Black & Beautiful Sybil McLean with fellow contestants, Hammersmith Palais, London, 1972. From the portfolio 'Black Beauty Pageants'. Courtesy of © Raphael Albert/Autograph ABP

A petition, which will be presented to the mayor of Chalon-sur-Saône has been launched to support musée Nicéphore Niépce. Nearly 5000 people have already signed. The highly regarded museum has suffered 60 per cent budget cuts over the past two years and the petition asks the mayor of Chalon-sur-Saône to guarantee the financial resources necessary for the operation of the museum.

The public service mission and activities of the museum are being challenged by budgetary restrictions imposed by the municipality: including a nearly 60 per cent budget cut and an acquisition budget cut from €43,000 in 2015 to €14 000 in 2016. The cuts will have serious consequences on the collection, exhibitions and cultural mediation.

The collection was conceived and developed since 1974, and has nearly 3 million images, objects and books. It is one of the richest devoted to photography in France and Europe. The active acquisition policy, focusing on contemporary photography, provides institutional and international recognition to photographers.Temporary exhibitions support a highly regarded cultural public service mission and foster public discussion. 

See and sign the petition here.

See the museum's English website here to read more: http://en.museeniepce.com/

The advent of photography in 1839 catapulted Victorian society into a new age of science, art and leisure. Previously only the wealthy could possess a painted portrait, but photography was cheaper and democratised the privilege of owning a likeness. A variety of forms soon emerged including the carte-de-visite, the daguerreotype, albumen prints, family photograph albums and stereoscopes.

This exhibition explores some of the ways that early photography was enjoyed by a society that quickly become obsessed with the new technology. See how the industry boomed and the culture of celebrity was born.

Close Up & Personal: Victorians & Their Photographs is a new interactive exhibition of photography and photographic items from the Watts Gallery Collection, with loans from the London Stereoscopic Company. See images of Victorian celebrities, and discover the rise of photography as art through the images of Julia Margaret Cameron and Henry Holiday. Interact with stereoscopic viewers (the first 3D photographic technique), and take a Victorian-style selfie.

Events

24 June: Watts at Dusk: Camera Obscura

16 July: Watts Academy Workshop: Pinhole Cameras

25 July: Study Day: Victorian Stereoscopes with Denis Pellerin

29 July: Watts at Dusk: Light & Shadow

4, 11, 18, 25 August: Free Family Drop-in: Photography Studio

19 August: One Day Workshop: Photography

25 August: Curator Breakfast Tour

12, 19, 26 Sept, 3, 10 October: Five Week History of Art & Design Course: Photography in the Victorian Age with Colin Ford CBE Hon FRPS, Bronwen Colquhoun, Denis Pellerin, Rhian Addison and Hilary Underwood

12 October: Evening Talk: The Dawn of Photography - From the Camera Obscura to the Kodak Brownie with Rob Dickins

See more at: http://www.wattsgallery.org.uk/en-gb/whats-on/close-personal-victorians-their-photographs/

Watts Gallery Artists' Village, Down Lane, Compton, Guildford, Surrey, GU3 1DQ

The Moscow Multimedia Art Museum has announced the launch of a new portal, History of Russia in Photographs, which exhibits around 80,000 photos dating from 1860 to 2000. The museum's director, Olga Sviblovo, said the portal's goal was to unite all museum and private photo collections in order to create a 'visual Wikipedia on Russian history in photos.'

Sliders allow a user to select and see photographs from a particular period or images can be search by name or keyword. 'We're now developing the site's English version and perfecting the auto translator because searching on the site is done through tags'. explained Sviblova.  Google's auto translate facility provides a workable site, although tags are in Cyrillic at the moment. 

The project brings together photographic material from all of Moscow's museums and the state archive, as well as with regional museums and the heirs of well-known Russian photographers. Users can also post their own photos, enhance the images and act as curators by creating their own exhibitions with accompanying texts and comments. 

See: https://russiainphoto.ru/

Image: Stallion Lyudmil, c.1860-1870s. From the collection of the Grand Duke Nicholas. Source: MAMM / MDF.

While St Andrews is world-renowned as the home of golf, BPH readers will know the important role the town has played nationally and internationally in photography from the 1840s to today. A new photography festival, which launches in August, will celebrate the role and importance of St Andrews in the world of photography and engage with those who live, work in and visit the town.

BID Chairman, Alistair Lang, explains: “We are one of the most photographed and filmed towns in the world, yet few realise much of the technology we enjoy the benefits of today began with the work of a collection of photographic pioneers who lived and worked in St Andrews in the 1800s.”

Dr John Adamson is perhaps the most celebrated – a blue plaque adorns the wall of his former home in the town on South St, now The Adamson Restaurant. But many other names are to be celebrated for the role they played, including Sir Hugh Lyon Playfair, David Octavius Hill, Robert Adamson, Thomas Rodger and Sir David Brewster.

The first six-week-long festival – from August 1 to 11 September - will see events and exhibitions focus on the earliest days of photography in St Andrews as well as Scottish documentary photography over the last 175 years and contemporary photography.

The festival will put some of the photographic highlights of the University of St Andrews Library Special Collections on show as well as creating a showcase for contemporary Scottish photography. 

Up to 15 local businesses will be involved, including cafés and restaurants, hosting small-scale exhibitions. There will also be tours, seminars, workshops and talks including guest photographers as well as workshops to demonstrate a variety of photographic processes including calotype and collodion - two of the earliest and those used by the town’s renowned pioneers of the art.

The exhibitions will include:

• 175 Years of Scottish Photography
• A 40th Anniversary retrospective of Edinburgh’s Stills Gallery
• Pioneers Thomas Rodger - who set up the first purpose-built photographic studio in St Andrews in 1849 - and Robert Moyes Adam
• Renowned Press photographers George M. Cowie and Harry Papadopoulos
• Documentary photographers Franki Raffles, David Peat, Dr Hamish Brown MBE, Sean Dooley and Document Scotland (Colin McPherson, Jeremy Sutton-Hibbert, Sophie Gerrard and Stephen McLaren)
• Photographic artists Calum Colvin RSA OBE, Kit Martin and Keny Drew

There will also be a number of events, including a ‘Become a Street Photographer’ youth workshop, a Victorian Tintype Studio, a photographic tour of St Andrews and talks by photographers including Hamish Brown on his travels in Morocco. 

Alistair adds: “Today’s technology ensures we can all be photographers and we’re inviting everyone to be a part of this unique festival which we hope will become a regular fixture in the town’s calendar.”

“This event is about participation – engaging with people who live and work in the town as well as those visiting during the festival. We’ll also be using the event to reach out to those who like, follow and otherwise engage with us on digital and social media channels worldwide…using photographs.”

“The festival includes indoor and outdoor venues – making use of the town’s stunning setting and landscape to showcase work and engage with photographers of all ages. It will also provide an opportunity for businesses across the town to get involved and interact with customers in new ways.”

The St Andrews Photography Festival will run from 1 August to 11 September 2016.

For details as they’re revealed, go to the Festival Facebook page at www.facebook.com/StAndPhotoFest/

I am asking members here for help in identifying this nude albumen photo. 20 x 16.5 cm oval print laid onto stiff card, with an ink inscription lower right: Octavie.

This came from a British album recently purchased in Derbyshire, containing hundreds of erotic albumen prints of paintings and sculptures, all female nudes. This was the only "from life' print, save for some later "Zulu" Nude photos.

I can imagine a Gentleman in his grand country house keeping this in a locked drawer in the library, for his own perusal!

A lovely photo, I think, especially with the crown and cross necklace. The seller thought that 'Octavie' may be a sly, almost anagram of "Victoria".  I'm not so sure, My thought was a classic Greek or Roman allegory, but then the cross makes no sense. I haven't figured out the name Octavie...

I believe it to be 1860's-70's, but have not found a similar image from either England or France. It seems to my eye to be too stiff and formal to be a French nude.

I rely on the wealth of knowledge here to help with conjectures...

Many thanks in advance, 

David