Clearly referencing the subject and style of paintings by Jean-François Millet and other 19th-century painters, photographs by “Giraudon’s Artist” were likely intended as studies for artists. Along with photographic collections of “Academic Studies,” “Costumes,” and “Animals and Landscapes,” the publisher Adolphe Giraudon advertised “instantaneous reproductions of peasant men and women, reapers, winnowers, shepherds, laundresses, etc.” that he described as “a precious resource to landscape artists.” Evocative of a traditional way of life that was then disappearing in the wake of the Industrial Revolution, these photographs—works of art in their own right—provide evidence of the dialogue between early photography and painting.