| 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.
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