In search of two Parisian photographers

On Tuesday Susie returned to her early morning schedule at Pascal's and I went in search of books of photos by two French photographers. One is quite well-known in Paris today, indeed he is probably considered the most famous of the 19th century portrait photographers and collections of his photos are easily found. His name is Gaspard-Felix Tournachon (1820-1910), known generally by his nickname of "Nadar." (That's him on the right here.)

Nadar photographed many, if not most of the great and near-great in 19th century Paris. Among his subjects Sarah Bernhardt:

Victor Hugo:

Edouard Manet:

And Gustave Dore:

The other photographer is somewhat more obscrue I'm afraid. His name is Pierre-Louis Pierson, and his claim to photographic fame extends to a series of photos he took in the second half of the 19th century in collaboration with the Countess di Castiglione.

Born in Florence, Italy in 1837 Virginie Oldoini (that's her above, sometime between 1863 and 1866) was the cousin of Count Cavour, one of the founders of modern Italy, and she married quite young to the Count di Castiglione. She eventually gained notoriety as the mistress of Napoleon III, and her husband subsequently broke off their relationship as a result. In 1856 she began sitting for Pierson, one of the favored photographers of the French court, and over the next 40 years they produced some 400 photos -- some of them showing just the countess's exposed legs or feet (considered risque at the time).

In 1975 the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York acquired some 275 of the photos and they remain part of their collection today. In 2000 the museum held an exhibition of a number of the photos.

My objective today was to try and track down a some of those photos here in Paris.

A helpful online resource for tracking down hard-to-find books on art and photography in Paris is Rendezvousfrance.com. They provide you with directions as well as a short review of each store to help narrow your choices. From their online list I chose three shops to investigate: Taschen, La Hune and La Chambre Claire, all three in the 6th arrondissement

From the Metro: Odeon you'll find Taschen books at 2 rue de Buci, and La Chambre Claire at 14 rue Saint-suplice. Taschen is of course a publisher of art and photo books and while the shop on rue Buci is slick, it deals with very little in the way of older work. Most of the photographers you'll find here are contemporary, aside from a handful of the icons of the French photo world such as Doisneau and Atget. La Chambre Claire is a bit more dedicated to older work. Indeed I found three works of nadar's, two of them focusing primarily on his caricatures (of which he did quite a few as well). But the prices were really quite steep so I passed.

From the Metro: St. Germain, you'll find La Hune at 170 blvd Saint Germain, right next door to Les Magots, the cafe made famous by Jean Paul Sartre and his lover Simone de Beauvoir. In fact the city named the place in front, Place Sartre-Beauvoir. (The two are buried together in a unpretentious grave in Montparnasse cemetery.) This probably has the largest collection of photo and art books I found on my short investigation, but again most of the work was relatively contemporary. Very few 19th century photo collections seemed to be available. I suppose one would have to frequent the smaller, specialty second-hard bookshops and of course the weekend flea markets.

So I did what I supoose I should have done in the first place: gone straight to amazon.com. There I found exactly what I had been looking for in the first place, or at least one of them: La Divine Comtesse: Photographs of the Countess de Castiglione (Metropolitan Museum of Art Series)

But hey, I enjoyed the journey anyway. I hope you do too.

Wish you were here,

Steve