Charles Nègre (French, 1820-1880)
Mills with cypress, Grasse, 1852
Waxed paper negative with selectively applied pigment
20.6 x 16.1 cm
Charles Nègre (French, 1820-1880)
Mills with cypress, Grasse, 1852
Salt print from a waxed paper negative
19.2 x 15.6 cm
Initialled in the negative and signed "C. Negre" in ink. Inscribed "E-24" and "No. 89" in pencil on verso.
Charles Nègre (French, 1820-1880)
Une rue à "Grasse", 1852
Waxed salt print from a waxed paper negative
32.7 x 23.2 cm
Signed "C. Nègre" and titled "Grasse" in the negative
Charles Nègre (French, 1820-1880)
Pavillon de l'Horloge, Louvre, Paris, circa 1855
Salt print from an albumen on glass negative
70.2 x 53.0 cm mounted on 101.0 x 72.5 cm paper
Charles Nègre (French, 1820-1880)
View from the banks of the Rhône "Arles", 1852
Waxed paper negative with selectively applied pigment
23.7 x 33.1 cm
Initialed "C.N." and titled "Arles." in black ink on verso
Charles Nègre (French, 1820-1880)
View from the banks of the Rhône "Arles", 1852
Salt print from a waxed paper negative
22.9 x 32.5 cm
Inscribed "E-16" and "No 86" in pencil on verso
Charles Nègre (French, 1820-1880)
Notre-Dame, Paris, circa 1853
Waxed paper negative
33.6 x 24.0 cm
Charles Nègre (French, 1820-1880)
Notre-Dame, Paris, circa 1853
Salt print from a waxed paper negative
32.8 x 23.1 cm
Signed "C. Nègre" in the negative
Charles Nègre (French, 1820-1880)
Still life with game, circa 1855-1860
Collodion on glass negative
44.7 x 35.8 cm
Charles Nègre (French, 1820-1880)
Still life with game, circa 1855-1860
Albumen print from a collodion on glass negative
43.4 x 35.3 cm
Charles NÈGRE (French, 1820-1880)
Le petit ramoneur, December 1851
Salt print from a waxed paper negative with selectively applied graphite
8.7 cm tondo
Blindstamp "Canson"
In 1851, Francis Wey declared in La Lumière that one of Nègre’s salt prints of a rag-picker “is no longer a photograph; it is a deliberately organized composition.” In other words, according to Wey, Nègre’s photograph had transcended the typical limitations of the medium to become a true work of art. Central to Nègre’s sense of composition was the so-called “theory of sacrifices,” a strategy in which certain parts of an image are intentionally left vague and undescribed in favor of highlighting certain powerful elements in the work. In Le Petit Ramoneur Nègre achieves this effect several ways with striking results. Nègre photographs his subject on the quai of the Seine, separating the figure from the distant background by the width of the river, and then he isolates him against the rough, stone wall. Nègre probably further erased the background through the careful application of pencil shading on the negative, leaving only an indistinct reminiscence of the Parisian environment and suggesting the metaphorical distance between our solitary hero’s gritty urban existence and the glittering wealth of mid-century Paris. The picture thus becomes an elegy for the chimney-sweep. Nègre’s pictures are rightly admired for their instantaneous feel, and he did indeed work towards creating shorter exposure times, but the casual look of his pictures can often be misleading. Although this picture was praised in its own day for its ‘snapshot’ appearance, it is in fact a posed picture, made with a three second exposure.
Charles Nègre (French, 1820-1880)
Le tailleur de pierre, summer 1853
Salt print from a collodion on glass negative
9.9 cm tondo
Stamped "André Jammes" and inscribed "No 32 / FH 23 / A37" by André Jammes in pencil on verso
Trained as a painter, Charles Nègre applied the compositional strategies and sense of formal arrangement he had assimilated in the painting studio of Paul Delaroche to the medium of photography. In 1851, the French writer and art critic Francis Wey would declare that one of Nègre’s genre studies “is no longer a photograph; it is a deliberately organized composition.” In other words, Nègre’s photograph had transcended the typical limitations of the medium to become a true work of art.
The masterful composition Le tailleur de pierre shows Nègre’s approach to genre photography, a subject for which he was renowned. By using soft focus in the background and bright illumination at the center, Nègre draws the eye toward the stonecutter’s gesture, frozen at a precise moment of action. Without using a fraction-of-a-second exposure, the artist created, rather than captured, what a split second would look like as a photograph. In spite of its instantaneous appearance, this is a posed picture, made with a three second exposure.
Even in its diminutive size, this print conveys Nègre’s ambition to argue for photography’s importance in the representation of modern life. Prints from the same negative are in the collections of the National Gallery of Canada in Ottawa and the Société Française de Photographie in Paris.
Charles Nègre (French, 1820-1880)
Portrait of a bearded man, Grasse, circa 1852-1855
Salt print from a waxed paper negative
19.2 x 14.0 cm
Charles Nègre (French, 1820-1880)
The port at Toulon, circa 1853
Salt print from a collodion on glass negative
15.3 x 19.7 cm
Inscribed "E-33 / No 91" by André Jammes in pencil on verso
This work marks one of Nègre's earliest forays into the wet collodion on glass process first introduced in 1851 by the Englishman Frederick Scott Archer. Nègre made The port at Toulon, along with a few collodion negatives of Cannes and Grasse, likely during a visit to the south of France sometime in the summer months of 1853, prior to his return to Paris where he used the collodion process to make genre figure studies.