Joseph vicomte Vigier (French, 1821-1894)
"Saint-Sauveur. Vallée d'Argelès en face les ruines de Beaucens.", 1853
Salt print from a paper negative
23.9 x 33.9 cm mounted on album page
Titled in ink on mount

Joseph vicomte Vigier (French, 1821-1894)

"Bagnères de Luchon. Vue du torrent de la Cascade des Demoiselles...," 1853

Salt print from a paper negative

36.7 x 27.7 cm mounted on 54.7 x 42.5 cm paper

This is a view of the waterfall known as the Cascade des Demoiselles. In the foreground at left, the little forest of Jouco. In the background appears Couradilles Mountain and the forest of Cherruba appears at right.

Joseph vicomte Vigier (French, 1821-1894)
"Lestelle. Notre-Dame de Bétharam. (Route d'Argelès à Pau)"*, 1853
Salt print from a paper negative
22.4 x 31.8 cm mounted on album page
Titled in ink on mount

Notre-Dame de Bétharam on the road from Argelès to Pau

Joseph vicomte Vigier (French, 1821-1894)

"Pau. Château de Pau.", 1853

Salt print from a paper negative

24.8 x 34.8 cm mounted on 42.5 x 54.5 cm paper

Joseph vicomte Vigier (French, 1821-1894)
Dauphiné, circa 1855
Coated salt or albumen print from a paper negative
38.4 x 27.7 cm mounted on 45.6 x 35.0 cm album page

Vicomte Vigier was one of Le Gray's most successful pupils. With his large camera and the waxed paper negative technique, he led armchair travelers on an 1853 summer journey through the Pyrenees. He became a founding member of the Société Héliographique and the Société Française de Photographie. He mastered Talbot's calotype process as well as Le Gray's waxed paper negative process to give him great flexibility. This view in south eastern France is filled with myriad details fusing nature with the man-made world. The windswept trees and the two small waterfalls are particularly compelling. 

Joseph vicomte Vigier (French, 1821-1894)
Chateau de Grand-Vaux, Savigny sur Orge, the family home of Vigier, circa 1855
Coated salt or albumen print from a paper negative
17.3 x 23.5 cm mounted on 20.6 x 29.2 cm album page

Joseph vicomte Vigier, the early French master, was one of Gustave Le Gray’s most successful pupils. His dramatic views in the Pyrénées in the album Voyage dans les Pyrénées 1853, were embraced in England and on the Continent. His comfortable mastery of Talbot’s calotype as well as Le Gray’s wax paper negative process gave him great flexibility and he used both of these techniques. This serene, elegant view of his family home in 1855 followed the unique achievement of his Pyrénées photographs. He continued to receive medals and honors for his contributions to the medium, but Vigier’s celebrated career as a photographer was mostly over by the late 1850s.