Baron Gros
(1793-1870)

Baron Jean-Baptiste Louis Gros was a diplomat and an early daguerreotypist. He was the French chargé d'affaires in Bogota from 1838 to 1842, in Athens in 1850 and ambassador in London from 1852 to 1863. During the time he was posted to London, he also travelled to China and Japan between 1857 and 1858.

He produced several famous daguerreotypes, not least among which are his views of the Acropolis. Less well known than his daguerreotypes are the remarkable and realistic paintings he made of the South American countryside.