TAPETUM LUCIDUM LOOKING AT VALLOU S PAPER NEGATIVES Weekly transmission 40-2017 presents: Vallou de Villeneuve studied with Jean-François Millet... II Weekly Drawing by Théophile Bouchet: Le Nyctalope de la rue d Enfer IV Eleven Vallou s dry paper negatives 1-11 Previous transmissions can be found at: www.plantureux.fr
Vallou de Villeneuve studied with Jean-François Millet, and started his career as a painter at the Paris Salon of 1814, exhibiting images depicting daily life, fashion, regional costumes and already nude studies... He published in the 1820s lithographs of Types des Femmes. The e-bulletins present articles as well as selections of books, albums, photographs and documents as they have been handed down to the actual owners by their creators and by amateurs from past generations. The physical descriptions, attributions, origins, and printing dates of books and photographs have been carefully ascertained by collation and through close analysis of comparable works. When items are for sale, prices are in euros Bitcoins and Paypal transfers are accepted. N 40-2017. VALLOU PAPER NEGATIVES
Weekly Transmission 40 III Thursday 5 October 2017. In 1830 with Achille Devera and Numas, Maurin and Tessaert, he contributed to the compendium of erotica Imagerie Galante (Paris 1830). He developed an international following for his 1839 folio-sized lithographic erotic series Les Jeunes Femmes, Groupes de Tetes, depicting racy episodes in the life of young women and their lovers. From 1842 de Villeneuve took up photography, not long after its invention, as an adjunct and aid to his graphic work, producing some daguerreotypes but predominantly softly toned salted paper prints from single-surface paper negatives that enabled the retouching he employed for artistic effect. Following the method of Humbert de Molard, he fixed his prints with ammonia which avoided the bleaching of highlights caused in salt prints by hypo, and thus incidentally ensured the archival permanence of his prints, which survive today. In 1846 de Villeneuve moved to rue d Enfer, renamed rue Bleue where he soon opened a photographic studio at 18 Rue Bleue, Paris, already advertised in 1850. Again his subjects were 'academic studies', small prints of nudes as models for artists. He produced also photographs of well-known actors in full costume posing against theatrical scenery. In 1851, Vallou participated to the Société héliographique. In 1853-1854, he was again a founding member of the Société Française de Photographie.
Weekly Transmission 40 IV Thursday 5 October 2017. French realist painter Gustave Courbet was introduced to Vallou de Villeneuve's photographs by fellow artist Alfred Bruyas during the 1850s and used them as source material for Les Baigneuses (1853) and L'Atelier du peintre (1855). One hundred years later, in 1954, the 27 th Venice Biennale presented a large-scale retrospective devoted to Gustave Courbet; one of the first major exhibitions devoted to the painter. Germain Bazin and Helene Adhémar (conservator, Department of Paintings at the Louvre) were the commissioners of A new century of vision" which gave an essential place for artistic creations of the Second Empire. Jean Adhémar, curator, stressed that "first photographers are almost all painters, especially under Napoleon III. (...) This was thus the first to attempt to identify the model in the nude photography. A nude by Jacques Moulin had previously been connected with the model in The Artist's Studio (L'Atelier du peintre) but two photographs by Vallou Villeneuve, exhibited in the same section, where the model, Henriette Bonnion poses in an attitude similar to that in Courbet s 'Bathers' and Artist's Studio. In 1855 Vallou de Villeneuve donated his prints to the Society Francaise de Photographie (S.F.P.). No photographs by him after this date are recorded. He dedicated himself to what is still the oldest non-profit artists association in Paris : the Fondation Taylor, 1 rue La Bruyere, 75009 Paris where he died during a commitee meeting eleven years later. Vallou s sudden death during one Fondation Taylor meeting. Without children, Vallou gave his large collection of paintings to four friends including a tax inspector and a notaire (Cf Marc Durand, De l Image Fixe à l image animée, Archives Nationales, ) Further reading (in French) : Dominique de Font-Réaulx, Les études photographiques d après nature : un laboratoire esthétique au XIXe siècle, Etudes Photographiques, 2015
Weekly Cartoonby Théophile Bouchet: Le Nyctalope de la rue d Enfer
Weekly Transmission 40 1 Thursday 5 October 2017. JULIEN VALLOU DE VILLENEUVE (1795-1866). Child, rue Bleue, c. 1850. Dry paper negative, 180x130 mm, pencil frame, recto, numbered in ink by the artist 52. 1200 euros
Weekly Transmission 40 2 Thursday 5 October 2017. JULIEN VALLOU DE VILLENEUVE (1795-1866). Three eyed woman portrait, c. 1850. Dry paper negative, 190x130 mm, pencil frame, recto, numbered in ink by the artist 8. 1200 euros
Weekly Transmission 40 3 Thursday 5 October 2017. JULIEN VALLOU DE VILLENEUVE (1795-1866). Woman portrait, rue Bleue, c. 1850. Dry paper negative, 210x140 mm. 1200 euros
Weekly Transmission 40 4 Thursday 5 October 2017. JULIEN VALLOU DE VILLENEUVE (1795-1866). Woman portrait, rue Bleue, c. 1850. Dry paper negative, 190x135 mm, pencil frame, recto, numbered in ink by the artist 74. 900 euros
Weekly Transmission 40 5 Thursday 5 October 2017. JULIEN VALLOU DE VILLENEUVE (1795-1866). Woman portrait, rue Bleue, c. 1850. Dry paper negative, 190x135 mm, pencil frame, recto, numbered in ink by the artist 60. 900 euros
5 verso Collectors are often desorientated when they first meet a Vallou paper negative. Dry paper as opposed to waxed paper is not transparent in normal light, and the printing of contact positive may have been slow without electric light. A photography collector or museum could have a pair of Vallou negatives to study and explain in the most simple way the early processes.
Weekly Transmission 40 6 Thursday 5 October 2017. JULIEN VALLOU DE VILLENEUVE (1795-1866). Woman portrait, rue Bleue, c. 1850. Dry paper negative, 180x130 mm, pencil frame, recto, numbered in ink by the artist 45. 900 euros
Weekly Transmission 40 7 Thursday 5 October 2017. JULIEN VALLOU DE VILLENEUVE (1795-1866). Woman portrait, rue Bleue, c. 1850. Dry paper negative, 222x140 mm, pencil frame, recto. 750 euros
Weekly Transmission 40 8 Thursday 5 October 2017. JULIEN VALLOU DE VILLENEUVE (1795-1866). Woman portrait, rue Bleue, c. 1850. Dry paper negative, 180x130 mm, pencil frame, recto, numbered in ink by the artist 13. 900 euros
Weekly Transmission 40 9 Thursday 5 October 2017. JULIEN VALLOU DE VILLENEUVE (1795-1866). Woman portrait, rue Bleue, c. 1850. Dry paper negative, 190x140 mm, pencil frame, recto, numbered in ink by the artist 52. 600 euros
Weekly Transmission 40 10 Thursday 5 October 2017. JULIEN VALLOU DE VILLENEUVE (1795-1866). Mademoiselle Rachel, rue Bleue, c. 1850. Dry paper negative, 200x140 mm. With a modern laser print. 1200 euros
10b JULIEN VALLOU DE VILLENEUVE (1795-1866). Mademoiselle Rachel, rue Bleue, c. 1850. With a modern laser print.
Weekly Transmission 40 11 Thursday 5 October 2017. JULIEN VALLOU DE VILLENEUVE (1795-1866). Mademoiselle Rachel, main sur la tête, Paris, c. 1850. Dry paper negative, 200x140 mm. With a modern laser print. 1200 euros
11b Mademoiselle Rachel, modern laser print. We compare with de la Blanchière.
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