Louis Auguste Bisson
1841-1846
Tongan Skulls

Lithograph, made from daguerreotypes
13 x 19.5 in.
 
Archive Farms
The Patrick Montgomery Collection, Object No. 2017.477b
 
Notes: Large lithographic plate reproducing two daguerreotypes by Louis-Auguste Bisson ca. 1841 of heads of natives of the Sonde archipelago in Melanesia. With printed attribution "Voyage au Pôle Sud & Dans L'Océanie / Anthropologie, Pl. 17 bis / Gide Éditeur / Lith par Léveillé d'après les crânes naturels, photographié par Bisson, sous la Direction de Mr. le Dr. Dumoutier / Imp. par Thierry Frères a Paris. From the rare illustrative supplement to Dumont D'Urville, "Voyage au Pôle Sud et dans l'Océanie…" (1842-7). This is reported to be the first use of photography in a government publication.
 
Produced at the very dawn of the photographic era, these daguerreian lithographs are one of the earliest uses of photography as a scientific mirror of the external world. Their meticulous detail and strong three-dimensionality recreates the impression of the original daguerreotype plates. Some of Bisson's original daguerreotypes from the project survive in museums, and two (of skulls) are illustrated in "Le daguerréotype français: Un objet photographique" (2003), pp. 369-370, as well as in "Les Freres Bisson photographies" (1999) cat 213 & 214.
 
LL/112605