HF The History of Photography 600pág

The progress of photography on paper in other countries 191
Becquerel and H. V. Regnault, the painter Eugene Delacroix, the writers Champfl.eury
and Francis Wey, the engraver A. F. Lemaitre, and the optical instrument
makers Charles Chevalier and N. P. Lerebours. In addition to its founder and presi-
. dent, the Society had a good sprinkling of aristocrats : Comte Olympe Aguado,
Comte L. de Laborde, Comte de Haussonville, Prince de Montleart, Baron de
Montesquieu, and Vicomte Vigier.
Acting on the advice of Francis Wey, who had urged the Academie des Beaux­
Arts to publish a series of photographs of French historic monuments, a number of
photographers were commisioned and allotted different districts during the summers
of 1851 and 1852. Gustave Le Gray and 0. Mestral covered Touraine and
Aquitaine, and Henri Le Secq Champagne and Alsace Lorraine, all three using the
still secret waxed-paper process. E. Baldus, working with the calotype process, photographed
the principal monuments in Paris, Fontainebleau, Burgundy and the
Dauphine; Hippolyte Bayard worked in Normandy using albumen-on-glass plates.
To the general dismay, the Comite des Monuments Historiques did not publish the
photographs but stored them instead under lock and key, a procedure not uncommon
amongst antiquaries. They are still preserved in the architectural department of the
Archives at the Beaux-Arts.
EDOUARD BALDUS, born in Westphalia, was a naturalized Frenchman. Originally
a painter, he became one of the leading French architectural photographers of the
early period, producing very large (1J!- in. x 17!- in.) calotypes and gelatine paper
photographs-a variation of the waxed-paper process which he recommended in
May 1852, 1 2 and to which the finesse and quality of the latter were attributed. Apart
from his work for the Comite des Monuments Historiques referred to, he photographed
in 1853 monuments in Aries, Nimes and Avignon. In 1854-55 he made for Pl 91
the Government a complete survey of the new wing of the Louvre in 1,500 detail
photographs lo the size of the original subjects : acanthus leaves on capitals, garlands,
statues. Every detail was reproduced separately-a very modern approach compared
with the general views usually taken in those days, and some prints were of exceptional
size, 44 cm. x 58 cm. (17!- in. x 23 in,). Together with Marville and Bayard,
Baldus was commissioned to photograph the sculpture collections at the Louvre and
Versailles. He also specialized in the reproduction of paintings. Less known are his
albums of views of architecture and landscape between Calais and Paris on the route
taken by Queen Victoria and Prince Albert during their State visit in August 1855,
and the new railway from Paris to Marseilles inaugurated by the Emperor Napoleon
III in the same year. Copies of these albums were presented by the respective railway
companies to the sovereigns. About 18 56 Baldus changed over to the collodion
process.
HENRI LE SECQ was also a painter and photographer. His photo-surveys of the
cathedrals of Chartres, Rheims, Amiens, Beauvais and Strasbourg, with details of
the statues on the fac;ades, are of great historical interest, showing the cathedrals before
their restoration by Viollet-le-Duc. Apart from his architectural work Le Secq also
excelled in landscapes, which were compared by his contemporaries to the paintings Pl 90
of Corot and Theodore Rousseau. A few years later he also became well known for
art reproductions. Many of Le Secq's photographs appeared in Blanquart-Evrard's
publications.
In the 18 50s CHARLES MARVILLE, another painter-photographer, made a unique
documentation of those Parisian districts which were shortly to fall victim to Haussmann's
grandiose layout.13 Apart from this documentation of Paris, Marville seems
to have worked for a number of years for Blanquart-Evrard, whose modification of