The Silver Canvas - Daguerrotype Masterpieces (Art Photography Ebook)

T H E S I L V E R C A N V A S
struck by the importance of the discovery and, rejecting
the viability of an open subscription, suggested
instead that the government itself should purchase
the discovery. Daguerre related this remarkable development
to Isidore in a letter on January 2, 1839, saying
that Arago intended to announce the discovery
at the next meeting of the Academy of Sciences. 37
There Arago would take the first steps to convince
the government that, by such an action, France would
add to its reputation as the home of genius as well as
demonstrate, once again, its role as the world s foremost
contributor to the advancement of mankind.
The Dream Has Come to Pass
ARAGO WASTED NO TIME promoting
Daguerre s discovery, taking advantage of
h. the next meeting of the Academy of Sciences
on January 7, 1839, to begin his campaign. He
astonished his colleagues with his announcement
that a way had been discovered to retain permanently
the wonderous views previously seen only
fleetingly in the camera obscura. 38 This long-sought
goal had finally been reached, or, as Arago later
would describe it, "the dream has come to pass." The
artist who, over the previous twenty years, had
brought so much excitement to the Parisian public
with his illusionistic spectacles, J. L. M. Daguerre,
had now succeeded in bringing about this new
miracle. Although the natural colors of objects
were not captured by Daguerre's system, his images
on metal plates were otherwise perfect reproductions
of what the camera obscura saw before it.
Arago testified that he and two other scientists,
Jean Baptiste Biot (1774-1862) and Alexander von
Humboldt (1769-1859), had inspected the results—
marvelous views of Parisian monuments—and were
convinced that Daguerre had achieved an amazing
breakthrough. The scientists agreed that a patent to
protect the invention was not feasible and therefore
accepted Arago s idea that a government subvention
should reward the inventors. Arago proposed to pursue
this goal with the government as soon as
Daguerre had revealed to him exactly how the
images were created. The pathway for Daguerre s
public and financial success was thus laid out, and
over the next eight months the steps along it were
directed by Arago.
While the legislative process was proceeding,
the press immediately hailed this magical discovery.
To describe the invention was not an easy task, however,
for they had to do so without fully understanding
how or why it worked. Daguerre took every
precaution to keep his process secret. Although willing
to show his work to visitors—particularly the
press—he made sure that the metal plates bearing
the images were either framed behind glass or
had their edges concealed by paper so the type of
metal used could not be identified. 39 Seeing the
results, however, was enough to send prose flying
high. Typical of how the press reacted are phrases
such as "marvels from a fairy tale"; "fabulous but
true"; "nature drew herself"; "each picture produced
an exclamation of admiration"; "the invention borders
on the fantastic." 40
After making such general observations, all
of the early reports agreed that the most amazing
feature of the daguerreotype was that it contained
every detail of whatever scene it captured. Minute
parts of the view, ones not even visible to the
naked eye, proved to be present when the plate was
examined through the powerful magnifying glass
Daguerre provided to visitors. Reporters eagerly told
how letters on a distant, barely perceptible shop sign
became completely legible; how a scarcely visible
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