| |
Pierre-Ambroise Richebourg
Seven Minute Self portrait (Daguerre's assistant), Paris
1841, 1 July (Thursday)
Daguerreotype, 1/2 plate, glass mount
16.5 x 12.6 cm
CEROS - Jean-Mathieu Martini / Serge Plantureux
Binoche et Giquello, épreuves choisies, 18 november 2010, lot no: 1
LL/41075
One of the very first photographic self portraits, with Hippolyte Bayard's and Samuel Morse's. To improve his own patience for the 7 minute pose, Richebourg called for Chateaubriand's assistance, through the 1838 3-volumes edition of "The Genius of Christianity". He gave the self-portrait as an example to Fortuné-Joseph Petiot-Groffier (1788-1855), who had asked Richebourg to teach him the technique before a summer trip to India (August 1841). The dedication letter has been traced:
"As I promised, I've included the self-portrait that I made at 1 o'clock on Thursday afternoon, the 1st of July (1841). In seven minutes in the shade, on a day so sunny I could not open my eyes... This gave me a less than becoming character : for I do not look very friendly."
Richebourg improved the first Daguerre technique and was the autor of several photographic brochures. Later he would become a great photographer to the Emperor, and to the Tsar of Russia. At the occasion of this selfportrait he is experimenting some technical improvements.
| |
LuminousLint 
@LuminousLint