A “gentleman amateur” photographer as well as an avid botanist, hunter, and small-town mayor in Normandy, Roger du Manoir studied photography with Gustave Le Gray and was a founding member of the Société héliographique, the first photographic society. Like others who pursued photography as an avocation rather than a profession, he printed his images for personal use and pleasure rather than for sale; his photographs are thus rare and carefully crafted. Mathilde de Faudoas, Comtesse de Bagneux, was the wife of Louis Charles Alfred Frotier, Comte de Bagneux, who was a wealthy landowner in Normandy and, like du Manoir, mayor of a small town.