On social networks you can find many publications with sensational headlines: it turns out that the great Russian poet was caught on camera. We checked whether such a photo could exist.
Posts with an alleged lifetime photograph of Pushkin can be found in "VKontakte", Pinterest, Facebook, LiveJournal, Twitter and other social networks. Mostly the photo appears in public pages that are dedicated to “interesting” facts, but sometimes it can also be found in communities of fans of the writer. Although the captions for the alleged photograph of Pushkin differ significantly, some users even claim that the poet was personally photographed by one of the inventors of photography, Louis Daguerre (either in Paris or St. Petersburg).
The first experiments that directly led to modern photography actually took place during Pushkin’s lifetime. A contemporary of the poet, the Frenchman Joseph Niepce for several years experienced different technologies for capturing images. In 1827, the inventor managed to take the photograph “View from the Window at Le Gras,” which think the earliest photograph taken with a camera obscura. At the same time, the exposure of this photo took, according to various estimates, from several hours to several days - it is unlikely that at least one model could sit in front of the camera for so long. What is also striking is how “View from the Window at Le Gras” is inferior in quality to the supposed portrait of Pushkin.
The work of Niepce, who died in 1833, was continued by Louis Daguerre. He improved the process of taking photographs, and in 1839 they presented instructions for obtaining so-called daguerreotypes. The first photograph depicting people called a photograph taken a year earlier, “View of the Boulevard Temple,” but due to exposure for several minutes, most of the human figures in it were blurred. But already in 1839, something appeared that in the 21st century would become an integral part of modern life - the selfie. Yourself photographed American photography pioneer Robert Cornelius. It is noticeable that this frame is already more similar in quality to the supposed portrait of Pushkin.
Great poet died in 1837, two years before the world became aware of Daguerre's technology. Even if we assume that the French inventor (or someone else) was able to achieve such image quality two or three years before the official demonstration of the technology, it is not clear why, of all the world celebrities, it was Pushkin who was captured, and not, for example, one of the monarchs. For example, after the invention of the phonograph it was almost mandatory showed ruling persons to tell about the latest achievements of technological progress. In not a single authoritative study dedicated to Pushkin, we could find any mention of the fact that he had a chance to pose for a photographer. Moreover, no information and that the poet traveled to Paris for this (and in general to Europe for any reason).
Most likely, we are dealing with a rather skillful Photoshop, the author of which took an old photograph, replaced the face of the person posing with Pushkin’s face and retouched the resulting picture. It is possible that the famous portrait by Kiprensky was taken as a basis - the tie and collar in the photograph and the canvas are surprisingly similar. We were unable to find the original source of the fake, but we can definitely say that it is already several years old - questions about its authenticity have begun appear back in 2012. However, this does not prevent social network users from spreading false information almost ten years later.
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