Napoleon Sarony

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Oscar Wilde No. 18 (1882), the subject of Sarony's copyright infringement lawsuit that reached the U.S. Supreme Court

Napoleon Sarony (1821 – 1896) was an American lithographer and photographer. He was a highly popular and prolific portrait photographer, most known for his portraits of the stars of late 19th century American theater.

Sarony was born in Quebec in 1821 and moved to New York City around 1836. He worked as an illustrator for Currier and Ives before starting his own lithography business. He switched to photography in the mid-1860s and established his own studio at 37 Union Square, during a time when celebrity portraiture was a popular fad. Photographers would pay their famous subjects to sit for them, and then retain full rights to sell the pictures. Sarony reportedly paid famed stage actress Sarah Bernhardt $1,500 to pose for his camera, the equivalent of more than $20,000 today.

One of Sarony's portraits of writer Oscar Wilde became the subject of a U.S. Supreme Court case, Burrow-Giles Lithographic Co. v. Sarony 111 U.S. 53(1884), in which the Court upheld the extension of copyright protection to photographs. Sarony sued Burrow-Giles after it used unauthorized lithographs of Oscar Wilde No. 18 in an advertisement, and won a judgment for $610 (the modern equivalent of just over $12,000) that was affirmed on appeal by the Second Circuit Court of Appeals and the Supreme Court. Sarony later photographed the Supreme Court itself, to celebrate the centennial of the federal judiciary in 1890.

Sarony was married twice. His first wife died in 1858; his second, Louie, reportedly shared his tendency towards eccentricity and preference for outlandish dress. She rented elaborate costumes that she wore during her daily afternoon walk through Washington Square, wearing them once before returning them.

His brother, Oliver François Xavier Sarony, was also a portrait photographer.

Sarony was buried in Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn.

Joseph Jefferson as Rip Van Winkle, 1869	Actress Sarah Bernhardt	Sarah Bernhardt as Cleopatra, 1891	Nikola Tesla (engraving of photograph)
1850 print by Sarony and Major