HF The History of Photography 600pág

58 The invention of photography
Pl 21
Chalon, another in the collection of the Societe Franc;:aise de Photographie, and a
third at the Conservatoire des Arts et Metiers. That Chevrier had at least the intention
of re-etching another of Niepce's plates, showing Christ bearing the Cross, is borne
out by a remark of Fouque.5 Further copies of the one or the other Cardinal plate
at Chalon were printed by Blanquart-Evrard in 1869 and used in the second edition
of his book La Photographie, ses origines, ses progres, ses transformations, published in
Lille, l 870.
In the same year in which he produced the photo-engraving of Cardinal d' Amboise,
Niepce succeeded for the first time in fixing permanently the image from
nature. The world's first photograph, now in the Gernsheim Collection, is also on
a pewter plate, size 8 in. x 6t in. The subject exactly fits the description of the view
from his window which Nicephore gave in a letter to Claude on 28 May 1816, when
he was experimenting with photography on paper. On the left is what the brothers
called the pigeon-house (an upper loft in the Niepce family house) ; to the right of it
is a pear-tree with a patch of sky showing through an opening in the branches; in
the centre, the slanting roof of the barn. The long building behind it is the bakehouse,
with chimney, and on the right is another wing of the house (as it was at the time).
Owing to the small light-sensitivity of bitumen of Judea, the exposure in the camera
lasted about 8 hours on a summer day. The length of exposure for pictures in the
camera is not only confirmed by Niepce's son but is evident in the picture itself, in
which the sun seems to be shining on both sides of the courtyard !
As in the photo-engravings, the latent image was rendered visible by washing the
plate with a mixture of oil of lavender and white petroleum, which dissolved away
the parts of the bitumen which had not been hardened by light. The result was a
direct positive picture in which the lights were represented by bitumen and the
shades by bare metal. After rinsing and drying the picture was unalterable.
There is no absolute agreement amongst historians as to the year in which Niepce
first succeeded in taking a permanent view from nature, though most (including his
son Isidore) favour l 824.6 Indeed, one of Claude Niepce's letters also supports the
view that Nicephore took a partially successful photograph from nature (on stone,
copper, or glass) in the summer of 1824; yet apparently the intensity of the image
was not satisfactory, for on 3 September l 824 Claude, in congratulating his brother
on his good results, remarks
They are such as you could have wished, since they confirm your hopes to have
the means to engrave [make pictures] on stone, on copper, and on glass . ... One
can say that you have made giant's strides since your last attempts at views from
nature, since you have been able to obtain certain details which prove the possibility
of succeeding in totality. The difficulty that remains to be conquered is small. . ..
But it would be possible, I presume, to augment the intensity of the image by
receiving it reflected from a mirror which would then communicate it to the
camera obscura . . . . The engraving of views from nature is still more magical
than the other [i.e. copying engravings by superposition] which is far from being
only a knick-knack, as you like to call it; but it is one of the most useful and most
brilliant discoveries of the century, and I am sure, and I desire with all my heart,
that it will be infinitely productive.
The reader should be warned that the terms used by the Niepce brothers are confusing
and at times even misleading. Just as in England photographs in the early days
were referred to as 'drawings' or 'sketches', the nomenclature of the older arts,
especially of engraving, was drawn upon by the Niepces. They write of 'pulling