09/26/2026
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1CG2hKs13k/?mibextid=wwXIfr
This photograph is an albumen print, a common 19th-century photographic process. Several copies survive in different collections. Beauchy apparently took several very similar photographs during the session; researchers distinguish them by numbers including 142, 156 and 179. Yours is the famous No. 142 version.
And here’s something historically significant about what you’re seeing: this isn’t a later recreation of what people imagined a café cantante looked like. Beauchy’s camera was actually there during the café-cantante era, photographing performers and spectators. That’s why this image has become such an important visual document of early professional flamenco.
