"NUS"

Cent Photographies
Originales de Laryew

100 photogravures in original linen-folder

Librairie des arts décoratifs A. Calavas, éditeur, 68, Rue la Fayette, Paris

The famous Parisian photographer Laryew (Stanislas Walery) was especially known for his risqué studies of the girls of the Folies Bergère as well as high society portraits. In 1923, under the scrambled pseudonym Laryew, Walery published a portfolio of 100 nude studies, now recognised as masterpieces of Art Deco photography; this is the source of our prints. Walery's real name was Stanislaw Julian Ignacy, Count Ostroróg. The photographic studio of Walery was actually set up by his father, who though born in Lithuania was in fact Polish. Walery senior became a British citizen in 1862, and started as a photographer in Marseilles and Paris before opening a successful studio in London, first on Conduit Street, then on Regent Street. The son took over the business in 1890, going into partnership with Alfred Ellis until 1900, when he moved to Paris. In 2005 the National Portrait Gallery, London, staged an exhibition of work by Walery, father and son, under the title Victorian Women. All of the subjects in that were rigidly corseted and highly respectable, unlike our daring Art Deco beauties.
(Neil Philip, http://www.idburyprints.com)