01.01.2019 Il existe des objets singuliers

Il existe des objets singuliers de différentes natures.

Cette reliure daguerrienne est une création des ateliers de reliure Mame à Tours, célèbre maison d’édition complétée d’une imprimerie lithographique et d’un atelier de reliure.

L’ouvrage imprimé par Mame àTours en l’année 1850 est un in-16 de 540 pages de papier fin, illustrée de fines gravures. Un rituel, un missel ou paroissien romain en français et en latin.

Le petit volume mesure en tout 127x90x23 mm. Le daguerréotype est serti au centre du premier plat de velours noir, les charnières sont d’argent.

Le portrait sur la plaque en ovale mesure 70×57 mm et on peut envisager qu’il répresente la jeune fille qui, à l’issue de sa communion solennelle, recevra ce présent.

L’année 1850 est exactement au centre de la période de diffusion des daguerréotypes 1839-1861. Mais les plaques et les portraits de 1839 et 1861 sont si rares que l’on peut dire que l’âge du daguerréotype couvre essentiellement la période 1840-1860.

La reliure n’est pas signée mais on connait d’autres exemples de reliures pleines de velours bleu ou noir avec les mêmes charnières d’argent sorties de l’atelier de Mame.

Ce qui intrigue le plus en regardant cet objet singulier, c’est que l’on réalise que l’on ne trouve aucune mention d’autres exemples de reliures ornées d’un daguerréotype.

En vous souhaitant de belles découvertes pour 2019 !

1 décembre 20181 décembre 2018

30.11.2018 Dutch museum can recognize mistakes: Photo of Vincent van Gogh turns out to be his brother Theo – Van Gogh Museum

The Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam, just published the result of a several-years long thought about photographic portraits of the Van Gogh brothers.

Above: The portrait on the left is now accepted by all authorities as a portrait of young Theo van Gogh.

A direct witness of the van Gogh brothers different physionomies is certainly Johanna Bunger who described her brother in law after his return from Arles:

“Vincent returned from the South on May 17, 1890. First he was going to spend a few days with us in Paris… I had expected a sick man, but here was a sturdy, broad-shouldered man, with a healthy colour, a smile on his face, and a very resolute appearance; of all the self-portraits, the one before the easel is most like him at that period. Apparently there had again come the sudden puzzling change in his condition that the Reverend Mr. Salles had already observed to his great surprise at Arles. — He seems perfectly well; he looks much stronger than Theo — was my first thought…”. (Johannah Van Gogh-Bonger, december 1913).

Link to the museum article: https://www.vangoghmuseum.nl/en/news-and-press/press-releases/photo-of-vincent-van-gogh-turns-out-to-be-his-brother-theo?v=1

Encouraging news.

25 novembre 201819 janvier 2019

02.05.2019 DESTINATION SENIGALLIA 2-3-4 MAY 2019

JOIN US FOR THE PRELUDE OF THE SENIGALLIA BIENNALE, DEDICATED TO THE FIRST 150 YEARS OF PHOTOGRAPHY, 1839-1989, WITH MICHAEL NYMAN AND HIS MUSICIANS. 2-3-4 MAY 2019

Returning in May every even year, the Bienniale celebrates the first 150 years of photography, 1839-1989.

Exhibitions dedicated to history of photography

Conference and Meetings, in English, French, Italian Fairs (galleries, collectors)

Workshops, expert evaluation sessions, A Prize.

The I Biennale, early May 2020, will outline the role of photography in the service of the Arts (Charles Baudelaire), painting, sculpture, dance, pantomime, poetry (Giacomelli).

The prelude, 2-3-4 May 2019 will help precise the directions and create the publications, discuss the research.

During one complete year, from the Prelude till the actual Biennale, May 2019 till May 2020, the general public and visitors will be invited to vote online in order to decide a theme for the next Biennale between a dozen of proposals, exemples :

– Photography records Nature, history of gardens and parks.

– Photography, Urban planning and geography. Memory of the megalopoles, National Geographic. Documentary photography.

– Photography and Police, identification of criminals, crime scenes or missing persons.

– Photography and Science: from the infinitely large till the infinitely small, astronomy.

– Photography and Pleasure, eroticism, gastronomy, Pavlov.

– Photography and Philosophy, in the service of Morality and religion, images can provoke feelings of compassion.

– Photography in the service of Political power or struggle, propaganda, censor, manipulation of emotions, satirical photographs.

– Photography and the Transmission of knowledge, a vaccine against the ravages of conspiracy), photography in the service of curiosity and critical thinking.

– Photography at the service of the Individual, photography within families, carte-de-visite, selfies.

– Photography and War, photographers in the war, registration of war history.

– Photography and the Art Market, history of Art, fakes, documentation, investigations, archeology.

– Photography and Fashion, advertising photographs.

The Senigallia railroad station has been situated since 1861 in front of the medieval palace, Rocca Roveresca, which is 250 meters from the beach and from the Biennale. Partner hotels can be reached by foot.

There are direct trains from Milan, Venice, Bologna and Munich. There are twenty trains each day to Bologna and two to Rome. Bologna has year round air service to most European capitals, and seasonally (Summer) to Philadelphia.

In addition, Situated half way between Senigallia and Ancona (16 and 12 kms), Marche Airport has daily flights from Munich (Lufthansa), Charleroi (Ryanair) and London Stansted (Ryanair). Information for exhibitors, dealers and visitors : SCBS srl

Rome, Margherita Sarli : +39 320 1104711 margherita.sarli@gmail.com,
Paris, Serge Plantureux : +33 6 50856074 serge@plantureux.fr
Tel Aviv, Raphaël Chicheportiche : raphael.chich@gmail.com

EN Senigallia Biennale 2019

17 novembre 201821 novembre 2018

21.11.2018 Vente de livres, photos et manuscrits (etude Chayette et Cheval), Rimbaud, Soutine, Morand, Toulet …

Tout ce qui est or ne brille pas,
Ne sont pas perdus tous ceux qui vagabondent ;
Ce qui est vieux mais fort ne se flétrit pas,
Le gel n’atteint pas les racines profondes.
(Tolkien, Poème d’Aragorn, La Fraternité de l’Anneau)

Le premier vers de la chanson d’Aragorn par Tolkien est presque une contraposée du célèbre vers repris par Shakespeare: Tout ce qui brille n’est pas d’or. On peut remplacer Or par Art, et constater que le marché de l’art s’envole sans prendre gare aux deux locutions proverbiales. La vente du 21 Novembre disperse une partie de bibliothèque qui ne paye pas de mine — avec quelques ajouts d’autres collections.

Etude Chayette et Cheval, 33 Faubourg Montmartre
Vente à La Salle, 20 rue Drouot, mercredi 21 novembre à 14 heures
Le catalogue est en ligne :

http://www.chayette-cheval.com/html/index.jsp?id=95110&lng=&npp=150

Les ouvrages sont d’allure modeste et les reliures souvent fatiguées mais les exemplaires sont truffés.

Une lettre est déchirée sur cinq centimètres et ce défaut probablement écartera quelques acheteurs à la recherche de la perfection calibrée, et laissera une chance à d’autres, aux budgets plus modestes qui apprécieront le contenu de ce reçu rédigé par Arthur Rimbaud en Éthiopie. Mais ces rares reçus signés portent tous la même déchirure, souvenir lointain d’une furtive impatience.

Continuer la lecture de « 21.11.2018 Vente de livres, photos et manuscrits (etude Chayette et Cheval), Rimbaud, Soutine, Morand, Toulet … »

16 novembre 201817 novembre 2018

16.11.2018 PWT 38-2018 Samuel Bourne Returns to Lucknow

Samuel Bourne returns to Lucknow

“Samuel Bourne was a British photographer who spent seven extremely productive years in India, and by the time he returned to England in January 1871, he had made approximately 2,200 fine images of the landscape and architecture of India and the Himalayas. Working primarily with a 10×12 inch plate camera, and using the complicated and laborious Wet Plate Collodion process, the impressive body of work he produced was always of superb technical quality and often of artistic brilliance.[citation needed] His ability to create superb photographs whilst travelling in the remotest areas of the Himalayas… with a retinue of some 30 porters to carry his equipment, and working under the most exacting physical conditions, places him firmly amongst the very finest of nineteenth century travel photographers.” (Wikipedia).

Exhibition at the Indian Institute of Management Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh

IIM Lucknow main campus spans 200 acres (81 ha) and is in Prabandh Nagar on the outskirts of Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, India. It is at 21 kilometres from Lucknow railway station and 31 kilometres from Lucknow Airport. IIM Lucknow also has a city office at Aliganj.

The academic buildings are constructed in medieval Indian architectural style with red brick wall texture.

As a part of student exchange programs, students spend a three-month term in a foreign university in October to December in their second year. Every year around 50 students of IIM Lucknow are selected for the exchange programs based on merit, while around 30 foreign students come to IIM Lucknow, for example from EM Lyon, as the curator of the present Bourne exhibition, Adrienne Plantureux.

Access to pdf and catalogue :

PWT 38-2018 Samuel Bourne Returns to Lucknow

14 novembre 201818 novembre 2018

14.11 2018. Good Old Days Story of a Recent Paris Auction : Le Gray’s Photographic Expedition along the Nile

Good Old Days Story of a Recent Paris Auction : Gustave Le Gray’s Photographic Expedition along the Nile (illustration: lot 34)

« La Gazette Drouot » is the weekly publication dedicated to auction activity at Paris Drouot, with some interesting general articles as well. Online subscribers get the issues on Thursday evening, one day before the distribution of paper numbers. That’s how on Thursday late afternoon 27 September 2018 spread the buzz in the passionate community of Le Gray afficionados : a treasure had been found, a full page anouncement reproduced 4 of the 71 Egypt albumen prints by Le Gray. The auction would be organized on November 14, after Paris Photo week, in Drouot, salle 6, the auction house being Delon-Hoebanx – Who are they ? The expert Mario Mordente – Who is he ?

Continuer la lecture de « 14.11 2018. Good Old Days Story of a Recent Paris Auction : Le Gray’s Photographic Expedition along the Nile »

7 novembre 20188 novembre 2018

8.11.2018 Exposition des Épreuves retrouvées d’Otto Wegener salle 7, Hôtel des ventes, 9 rue Drouot

La distribution du catalogue et l’exposition des épreuves ont permis de compléter, de corriger et de préciser plusieurs identifications.

20. Otto Wegener

Ida Rubinstein et son bébé léopard Paris, juin 1913

Les contemporains parlent plus volontiers de la panthère d’Ida Rubinstein qui effraya tant certains visiteurs célèbres. Un léopard est aussi une panthère, à robe tachetée. Selon plusieurs biographes, Ida Rubinstein avait chez elle une panthère noire et un bébé léopard.

25. Otto Wegener

Marguerite Schneider, Marquise de Brantes et Bernard d’Hendecourt en costumes orientaux – Préparatifs du bal costumé chez madame de Chabrillan, rue Christophe-Colomb

Paris, Mai 1912

À la suite des représentations de “Shéhérazade” à l’Opéra, par les Ballets russes, en 1910, un véritable engouement pour l’Orient s’empara de la société parisienne. Après la “Mille et deuxième nuit” organisée par le couturier Paul Poiret le 24 juin 1911, la comtesse de Chabrillan organisa, le 29 mai 1912, dans son hôtel de la rue Christophe Colomb, un fastueux “bal persan” qui eut un grand retentissement.

26. Otto Wegener

Marguerite Schneider, Marquise de Brantes en costume oriental

Paris, 1912

5 – Otto Wegener
Comtesse Greffulhe avec un éventail en compagnie de sa fille Elaine
Paris, 1908

On nous a signalé que le visage de la jeune femme est peu ressemblant avec les portraits plus jeunes d’Elaine, que la mère et la fille ne sont pas connues pour figurer ensemble dans une composition aussi maternelle. Nous remarquons que les visages sont effectivement très retouchés, tant au niveau des visage que des tailles.

Le procédé photographique utilisé crée de considérables transformations, à travers une succession d’étapes, d’agrandissement et de retouches. Nous prenons en considération les doutes exprimés, tout en conservant l’identification proposée.

49- OttoWegener
Le Fennec et la Mort, photomontage, allégorie Paris, vers 1914

La couronne est anglaise, la croix allemande, l’aigle français, l’allégorie semble concernant un univers européen qui disparaît.

51- ArnoldWegener (1871-1948)
Trois essais au Splendicolor

Le procédé primitif est un procédé aux colorants, les couleurs sont fragiles et craignent la lumière naturelle.

4 novembre 20184 novembre 2018

PWT 37-2018 All that is Gold does not Glitter – Tout ce qui est Or ne brille pas

All that is gold does not glitter;
All that is long does not last;
All that is old does not wither;
Not all that is over is past.

Tout ce qui est or ne brille pas,
Ne sont pas perdus tous ceux qui vagabondent ;
Ce qui est vieux mais fort ne se flétrit pas,
Le gel n’atteint pas les racines profondes.
(Poème d’Aragorn, Le Seigneur des anneaux, La Fraternité de l’Anneau)

Le premier vers de la chanson d’Aragorn par Tolkien est presque une contraposée du célèbre vers repris par Shakespeare: Tout ce qui brille n’est pas d’or.

On peut remplacer Or par Art. Et le marché de l’art s’envole sans prendre gare aux deux locutions proverbiales.

La vente du 21 Novembre dispersera une partie de bibliothèque qui ne paye pas de mine — avec quelques ajouts d’autres collections.

Les ouvrages sont d’allure modeste et les reliures souvent fatiguées mais les exemplaires sont truffés.

Une brochure а l’allure fatiguée contient deux cartes postales d’une écriture fine, fixées avec un épouvantable adhésif. Chaim Soutine y détaille ses souffrances au verso d’une estampille illustrée du portrait du Maréchal Pétain.

Un étui déchiré contient un ouvrage illustré par Picasso, illustré dans tous les sens du terme.

Un livre fondateur de l’impressionnisme est dédicacé au peintre Maximilien Luce.

Certains volumes ne payent pas de mine, en particulier les placards ou les jeux d’épreuves corrigées et il faut du temps pour explorer les corrections manuscrites et les billets autographes de Paul-Jean Toulet et de Guillaume Apollinaire, d’Anna de Noailles ou de Paul Morand.

La vente sera précédée d’une seule journée de visite en Salle 20, 20 rue Drouot, le 20 Novembre mais pendant les deux semaines précédentes il est possible de prendre rendez-vous avec l’étude Chayette et Cheval qui a mis а disposition des amateurs une salle а l’étage du 33 Faubourg Montmartre pour consulter paisiblement les 185 lots de la vente.

PWT 37-2018 All that is gold does not glitter

Acces au catalogue online :

http://www.chayette-cheval.com/html/index

25 octobre 201825 octobre 2018

25.10.2018 Cosmic Pluralism and the Rise of Astrophotography

Ferdinand Quenisset (1872–1951), French astrophotographer

Quénisset was born on 8 August 1872 in Paris, the son of Gatien Jules Quénisset, an assistant director of Monnaies et Médailles in Paris, and Juliette Antonia Mallard, a dressmaker.Ferdinand became interested in astronomy by reading Camille Flammarion‘s books. In 1891, Quénisset, 19 years old, joined Flamamrion’s Society Astronomique de France as assistant librarian. At the time, the SAF was located at 28 rue Serpente in Paris. Soon, Quenisset worked also as an observer at Flammarion’s observatory in Juvisy-sur-Orge, where he discovered a comet in 1893.He was forced to abandon astronomy for several years while he performed his military service, but then returned to Juvisy to resume his post at the observatory until 1947.

Flammarion’s Observatory in Juvisy

The observatory was established in Juvisy-sur-Orge in 1883 by the French astronomer and author Camille Flammarion, with the support of the Emperor of Brasil, Don Pedro II, who became curious to know about aliens by reading Camille Flammarion‘s books.Flammarion published his first book, The Plurality of Inhabited Worlds, in 1862 and was dismissed from his position at the Paris Observatory later the same year. In Real and Imaginary Worlds (1864) and Lumen (1887), Flammarion describes a range of exotic species and extraterrestrial life, with a religious conviction derived from the writings of Saint-Simonian apostle Jean Reynaud and their emphasis upon the transmigration of souls.

PWT 36-2018 Cosmic Pluralism

“What intelligent being, what being capable of responding emotionally to a beautiful sight, can look at the jagged, silvery lunar crescent trembling in the azure sky, even through the weakest of telescopes, and not be struck by it in an intensely pleasurable way, not feel cut off from everyday life here on earth and transported toward that first stop on the celestial journeys?…” (Camille Flammarion).

5 octobre 20188 octobre 2018

05.10.2018 Le Catalogue OTTO-PORTRAITS est en ligne et la vente fait la Une de la Gazette !

Un fonds d’atelier photographique est retrouvé intact après cent ans d’oubli. Le studio du portraitiste Otto, place de la Madeleine, accueillait le Tout-Paris de la Belle Époque. Otto et ses fils y menaient grand train.

Autoportrait 1
Paul Verlaine 3
Comtesse Greffulhe 4-5
Edward Steichen 6
Gommes bichromatées 7-8
Artiste au chapeau 12
Isadora Duncan 13-18
Guerrier africain 19
Ida Rubinstein 20-24
Ballets russes 25-30
Autoportrait 31
Fonds d’atelier 32-50

Le catalogue est accessible en ligne en cliquant sur n’importante quelle image ou en se rendant directement sur le site de Daguerre :

http://daguerre.fr/prochaines-ventes/

La gazette Drouot a fait l’honneur de sa Une à la découverte de ce fonds d’atelier photographique, avec un article en page 8, accessible sur le site pour les abonnés.

Cinq épreuves seront visibles dès la semaine prochaine, à l’exposition Collégiale Œuvres Choisies qui se tiendra du 12 au 21 octobre en salle 9.

Le catalogue imprimé sera disponible en avant première en salle 9, le Jeudi 18 Octobre en fin d’après-midi, début de la nocturne de Drouot (18h).

Une affiche 40×60 cm sera également disponible sur simple demande pour les personnes qui souhaiteraient la présenter dans leur vitrine, ou simplement décorer leurs murs :

OTTO-Portraits-catalogue-leger

Estimations

27 septembre 2018

27.09.2018 PWT 35-2018. VIRTUAL MUSEUM OF COUNT MINUTOLI

Alexander was the founder of the world’s first arts and crafts museum

Baron Alexander von Minutoli (1806-1887) was the creator of one of the very first decorative arts museums in Europe, the first of the nineteenth century, a precursor of the Victoria and Albert Museum in London and the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris, and made extensive use of photography to spread taste and knowledge.

In 1839, the same year that photography was invented, the Prussian ministry sent him to Liegnitz (now Legnica, Poland) to develop local crafts in a period of economic crisis. Having inherited from his father a passion for art history and collecting, Minutoli had brought back many decorative art objects from his travels. In order to stimulate industry by example and restore the lost unity of art and crafts, he created a new kind of museum; no art museum or curiosity cabinet, but a collection of models of the best in decorative arts since antiquity, organized by materials and periods. In 1845, the King of Prussia granted him the use of about ten rooms in Liegnitz Castle to display the objects.

Minutoli wanted to address a national, even international audience. He therefore developed a system for lending the original works and antiques to Prussian schools of applied arts. This caused some damage. Minutoli then imagined a loan of watercolours; then, of daguerreotypes (the photographer Louis Birk produced a few dozen plates for him). The Crystal Palace Exhibition, held in London in 1851, gave him the opportunity to present them to the world.

But these were fragile, and as soon as the collodion process was invented, Minutoli took up this major innovation. In 1853, he hired a 23-year-old young man from Liegnitz’s school of applied arts, Ludwig Belitski.

Using an ingenious splash system and a 9-foot (2.74-metre) Dollond telescope, Minutoli and Belitski made up a corpus of more than 150 photographs on salted paper.

Presented at the 1855 Paris Universal Exhibition, it opened with a lithographed title page: “Models for craftsmen and manufacturers from the collection of the Minutoli Institute for the Improvement of Trade and the Promotion of the Arts in Liegnitz”.

PWT 35-2018 Count Minutoli

6 septembre 201820 décembre 2018

06.09.2018 PWT N°34-2018 Et si c’etait ainsi que naissait le premier poète ?

Et si c’etait ainsi que naissait le premier poète ?Quelle mystérieuse nécessité intérieure a poussé le jeune Francisco a noircir des milliers de pages de poèmes ? Et à devenir l’auteur du livre le plus rare et le plus mystérieux de Nouvelle Grenade.Comment la poésie s’est-elle imposée à un homme de vingt ans, né en 1647 dans une capitale du Nouveau Monde comptant 3000 cachupines pour une altitude de 3000 mètres. Est-ce l’éducation reçue chaque jour dès 5.45 du matin dans le collège des Jésuites ?

(Theophile Bouchet, Hommage à Alvarez de Velasco)

Est-ce le fait de se retrouver Gouverneur d’une foret vierge, avec pour seuls compagnons quelques milliers de travailleurs autochtones et de bien plus encore d’animaux sauvages ?

Francisco Álvarez de Velasco y Zorrilla (1647-1708). Rhytmica sacra, moral, y laudatoria, impresso por distintos impressores, en diferentes lugares y tiempos [Burgos-Madrid, 1700-1703]

No one would have ever heard of Alvarez de Velasco if he had not fallen benevolently in love with a distant poetess from the North, Juana-Ines, who had become a nun to protect her independence, by taking refuge in a convent in the gigantic Mexico City area 3000 km away. If, by being appointed ambassador of the colony of New Granada in Spain, Francisco had not secretly organized a possible and furtive meeting in 1702 during the necessary Mexican stage before the dangerous crossing of an ocean at the mercy of enemy privateers, he might never have known that his love had already died seven years earlier.

Despair filled his heart and arrived in Spain on a long convoy loaded with gold, amidst naval battles and burning ships, he set out in search of those who had known or edited the poems of Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz. He agreed with Clemente Puche or Puich who had engraved the beautiful portrait as the titlepage of the Works of the Phoenix of Mexico two years earlier.

PWT 34-2018 Alvarez de Velasco

20 août 20187 septembre 2018

30.08.2018 PWT “Le Photographe Retrouvé” Otto Wegener

Otto Wegener was born in the southern Swedish town of Helsingborgs in 1849. The Swedish photographer Hanna Forthmeijer (1827-1914) established the city’s first permanent studio in Otto’s parents’ home in the mid-1860s. (Cf. a local advertisement for this first studio of Helsingborgs published in 1867, the same year the young man left for Paris reproduced in Helsingborgs stadslexikon).

Because he had joined the Commune under the Garde Nationale uniform, Otto went in exile to London where his three sons were born]. He came back after 1875.

Nothing is known about his introduction to photography; all we know is that he opened his magnificient studio at the fashionable address 3, Place de la Madeleine in 1883, successfully competing with Nadar and Reutlinger for the elite audience.

Marcel Proust frequented Otto’s studio.

He also brought his favourite ladies from the nobility to Otto’s studio. Celebrated as the supreme beauty of her day, Countess Elisabeth Greffulhe (1860-1952) was the triumph of Parisian society when Marcel Proust made her acquaintance in 1892.

Proust pursued her with requests for a photograph, which she staunchly refused. Nonetheless, the countess would inspire Proust’s fiction, becoming a prototype for the glamorous Duchesse de Guermantes in A la recherche du temps perd (1913-27).

Acces au pdf : PWT 33-2018 Le Photographe Retrouvé (Otto Wegener)

Wegener had then already simplified his name to OTTO, a signature that shined in gold above the sixth floor on the building. He maintained contacts with the Swedish colony of artists and the writer August Strindberg dined in his house in 1894. The writers Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson and Victoria Benedictsson as well as the painter Albert Edelfelt are among the Scandinavians who had their photographs taken by Otto.

Continuer la lecture de « 30.08.2018 PWT “Le Photographe Retrouvé” Otto Wegener »

20 août 201820 août 2018

Zonamaco Foto 2018: Turn on your lights!

The Copernican Revolution was the paradigm shift from the Ptolemaic model of the heavens, formulated by Nicolaus Copernic some time before 1514 and refined until the publishing of De Revolutionibus Orbium Coelestium in 1543.

Fifteen scores later, the Daguerreian Revolution was the paradigm shift from the classical representation of Nature and Human faces, formulated by Niépce some time before 1827 and refined by several gentlemen until the public announcement of 19 August 1839.

When the first photographic processes were invented and developped by Niépce and his followers in Europe, the photographic portrait was really born in America circa 1840. Robert Cornelius in Philadelphia and John Draper are the central figures.

We will present 17 early daguerrian portraits and an armil during Zonamaco Foto on stand B-316.

If you are in Mexico on Friday afternoon, do not hesitate to join the presentation on some famous daguerreotypes :

ACCESS TO THE CATALOGUE PWT 29-2018

16 août 201815 août 2018

16.08.2018 PWT 31-2018 CHILDREN IN THE TEMPLE OF PHOTOGRAPHY

“Eugène Disdéri (1819-1889) was a French photographer who gained great fame for patenting his version of the carte de visite, a small photographic image which was mounted on a card. Disdéri, a brilliant showman, made this system of mass-production portraiture world famous. Disdéri’s’s cartes de visite were 6×9 cm, about the size of conventional visiting cards of the time, and were made by a camera with four lenses and a sliding plate holder; a design inspired by the recently-invented stereoscopic cameras. The novelty quickly spread throughout the world. According to Eduard Liesegand, a German colleague, Disdéri’s studio became “really the Temple of Photography — a place unique in its luxury and elegance. Daily he sells three to four thousand francs worth of portraits”. (Wikipedia)

Eugène Disdéri ou la photographie bourgeoise – quelques idées reçues

“Avec la photographie, la bourgeoisie a trouvé sa technique et son esthétique ; avec la photo-carte de visite – dont Disdéri dépose le brevet en 1854 – elle trouve son support et son usage.” « Puis, coup décisif, l’apparition de Disdéri et de la carte de visite qui donnait pour quelque vingt francs douze portraits quand on avait payé jusque-là cinquante ou cent francs pour un seul ». (Nadar). “Tous, bourgeois, aristocrates et rastaquouères, se faisaient photographier devant les décors de son invention » (Comtesse de Pange, Comment j’ai vu 1900, Grasset, 1962, p. 82).

Continuer la lecture de « 16.08.2018 PWT 31-2018 CHILDREN IN THE TEMPLE OF PHOTOGRAPHY »

9 août 201811 août 2018

09.08.2018 PWT 30-2018. Investigating a possible candidate for the Long Lost Clyde Daguerreotype (I)

On Long Lost Daguerreotypes

This conference* is an introduction to the more general project of an essay on lost daguerreotypes following the principles of classical bibliography, and William A. Jackson’s recommendation about lost books:

“We must recognize that despite all the work of the collectors of the past, a considerable portion of what once was printed no longer exists, and it is possible that the study of such lost books may become a recognized part of bibliographical work, just as the paleontologists are forced to reconstruct beasts whose bones they have never seen. Researches into books that have not survived may prove to be far more fruitful than at first seems possible.”

Roger Stoddard, former librarian of the Houghton library and author of the celebrated 1982 bibliography, Lost Books: American Poetry before 1821, strongly warned about the danger of wishful thinking:

“For bibliographers the most disheartening feature of such studies is the nature of the evidence. Contrary to the rules of bibliography, any source but a complete copy of the book is used. Old descriptions in inventories or catalogues, advertisements of booksellers or printers, and copyright entries are often unreliable and easily misinterpreted. No careful scholar presents data from such sources without warning his readers or before seeking verification elsewhere. Some writers have been tempted to embroider and fill out the data, fictionalizing printing history while showing off their knowledge of it. Only if properly handled can such data yield useful results.”

We can follow his path and adapt his advice to lost photographs. The most famous photographic subject on earth is probably Abraham Lincoln. The temptation of impatient wishful thinking has misled several collectors, conservators, curators and auctionneers during the past 68 years, transforming the hunt into a mine field.

Since the early 1960s every portraits which could be of Lincoln has been searched, scrutinized, dozens of announcements have been made in the press, on rados and televisions. All families of people who had meet with Lincoln have been visited. Only three candidates, three purported portraits came to a large public knowledge in 1966, 1977 and 1998…

2017. An anonymous image unearthed during a busy New York photo fair, During the AIPAD Photo week, after having been offered for several months on internet. “The sitter is a Lincoln’s doppelganger” raised as a question. But this plate is a daguerreotype. Paradox: — How could a lincolnian portrait precede Lincoln changing appearance by growing a beard?

Access to the first article : PWT 30-2018 Long Lost Clyde Daguerreotype

CONFERENCE AND PUBLIC DEBATE :
FRIDAY 23 AUGUST 2018 AT 3 PM
ZONAMACO FOTO - LOMAS DE SOTELO – MEXICO CITY

https://zsonamaco.com/september/foto

8 août 201811 août 2018

08.08.2018 Visit to Washington: Investigating the Existence of the Long Lost Clyde Daguerreotype

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jaZygCK3Ir4

2 août 201824 novembre 2018

PWT 29-2018 COPERNICAN ARMILLARY SPHERE : CONJONCTION OF PORTRAITS

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Copernican Armillary Sphere (France, circa 1840)

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This Daguerrian portrait (circle of Robert Cornelius, Philadelphia, circa 1840)

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Quarter plate daguerreotype (circle of Johhn Draper, New York, circa 1840)

La Galerie du Palace invited French artist Lyes Hammadouche. Please come and visit his installation. The conjonction of rare daguerrian portraits from Europe and the Americas meet with the conjonction of planets of a vintage armil.

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Planétaire copernicien (Copernican Armillary Sphere), France, circa 1840

The portrait session was a real adventure and often a unique event in each period of life (with the notable exception of the artists’ families). Some models have dramatically thwarted the operator’s efforts to capture the decisive moment.

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Early daguerreian portrait of three children (Philadelphia, circa 1843)

This invention of Daguerrian portraiture accompanied the formation of the United States and the birth of American culture. The portrait below is contemporary of the youth of Mark Twain, author of Tom Sawyer’s adventures.

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Sixth plate daguerreotype (W. V. Prentice, Savannah, Georgia, circa 1855)

PWT 29-2018 COPERNICAN ARMILLARY SPHERE – CONJONCTION OF PORTRAITS

26 juillet 201817 juillet 2018

26.07.2018 PWT 28-2018 LES SEPT PÉCHÉS CAPITAUX (SEVEN DEADLY SINS)

Avant Thomas d’Aquin, Evagre le Pontique énumère les idées concupiscibles et irascibles qui donneront les intitulés des sept péchés capitaux :

Gourmandise, criminels identifiés par des morsures gourmandes
Avarice, les accumulations de Landru
Luxure, 20 000 femmes tondues lors de l’épuration à la Libération
Paresse, jarretelles tatouées sur des mollets poilus
Colère, affaire Secula, couteau de vannier
Envie, une bande de dévaliseurs de boutiques
Orgueil, Paul Ferdonnet, autoportrait ithyphallique

(Paul Ferdonnet, rédacteur des bulletins de Radio Humanité, 1939)