ULTIMATE Early French Masterworks from the Hyman Collection Hippolyte Bayard Follow La Butte Montmartre (Moulin de la Petite Tour and Propriété Michelini) late 1840s-early 1850s Salt print from a paper negative, unevenly trimmed. Image: 18.3 x 26.7 cm (7 1/4 x 10 1/2 in.) Sheet: 18.6 x 27 cm (7 3/8 x 10 5/8 in.) This work is one of only two known prints made by Bayard of this image to date; the other print is held privately. J. Paul Getty Museum holds a smaller format salt print, showing Propriété Michelini, which they date 1842. It is likely that the paper negative of the present image has not survived.
Condition Report Sign up or Log in Provenance Private Collection, France Artcurial, Paris, 15 May 2007, lot 23, dated 1842 The Hyman Collection, London Catalogue Essay Montmartre, the bohemian neighbourhood with its picturesque windmills, was a frequent subject for Hippolyte Bayard a pioneer in the history of photography. Experimenting in the hours outside of his civil service job, Bayard discovered his own photographic technique of creating direct positives on paper in 1839, the same year in which the daguerreotype was announced, but this achieved little success. In 1842, following Talbot’s 1841 announcement of his calotype process, Bayard adopted Talbot's negative-positive system and became one of the first in France to achieve successful results with paper photography. By 1851, when he was granted a Mission héliographique by the Commission des monuments historiques to document architecture in France, he had started using glass negatives alongside paper negatives. In the present photograph, we see the Moulin de la Petite Tour on the left and the Propriété Michelini in the centre, then located at 102 rue Lepic. This distinctive house also appears in another salt print by Bayard, Hill in Montmartre, between rue Lepic and rue d'Archampt , 1842, held in the collection of the J. Paul Getty Museum. Based on the size of the current lot, which is larger than Getty’s print, it is likely that this image was taken in the late 1840s or early 1850s. The Société française de photographie (SFP), where nearly all Bayard’s extant prints and negatives were bequeathed upon his death, holds similarly sized paper negatives, one of which is dated 1848, as well as a larger format salt print, dated 1851. La Butte Montmartre , offered here, is trimmed along the top edge with narrow brown margins along the left, right and bottom edges characteristic of Bayard’s salt prints. As of this writing, this is one of only two known prints made by Bayard of this image; the other print, held privately, is a trimmed salt print. The Musée Carnavalet and the Bibliothèque nationale de France each holds a similar group of images of Montmartre with dates ranging from 1852 to 1890, compiled by Henri Daudet (b.1847), a founding member of the Société d’Histoire et d’Archéologie Le Vieux Montmartre (founded in 1886). Included in each group is a similarly sized albumen print of the present image, printed after 1886 likely by Daudet. While the majority of photographs in both groups are those taken by Daudet between 1886 and 1890 for the aforementioned Société Vieux Montmartre, a number of images are dated between 1852 and 1855, including this image. Daudet is known to have made copies of photographs of Montmartre taken before his time for the Société Vieux Montmartre; whether he printed from Bayard’s original negative or re-photographed a positive is unknown. It is likely that the paper negative of the present image has not survived. The Musée Carnavalet attributes this image to Bayard and a manuscript annotation by an ‘M. Maillard’ on the mount verso of their albumen print (printed in 1887 likely by Daudet) dates Bayard’s photograph as taken after 1845 and before 1853 according to the construction dates of Propriété Michelini. This time frame corresponds with the dating of this photograph based on the holdings of Bayard’s work at the SFP and the Getty. We extend our sincere thanks to Anne de Mondenard, Chief Curator of Heritage, Photographs and Digital Images at the Musée Carnavalet and Bérengère de l’Épine, Head of Photographs at the Bibliothèque historique de la Ville de Paris for their expertise and assistance in our research. Read More
ULTIMATE Early French Masterworks from the Hyman Collection Hippolyte Bayard Follow La Butte Montmartre (Moulin de la Petite Tour and Propriété Michelini) late 1840s-early 1850s Salt print from a paper negative, unevenly trimmed. Image: 18.3 x 26.7 cm (7 1/4 x 10 1/2 in.) Sheet: 18.6 x 27 cm (7 3/8 x 10 5/8 in.) This work is one of only two known prints made by Bayard of this image to date; the other print is held privately. J. Paul Getty Museum holds a smaller format salt print, showing Propriété Michelini, which they date 1842. It is likely that the paper negative of the present image has not survived.
Condition Report Sign up or Log in Provenance Private Collection, France Artcurial, Paris, 15 May 2007, lot 23, dated 1842 The Hyman Collection, London Catalogue Essay Montmartre, the bohemian neighbourhood with its picturesque windmills, was a frequent subject for Hippolyte Bayard a pioneer in the history of photography. Experimenting in the hours outside of his civil service job, Bayard discovered his own photographic technique of creating direct positives on paper in 1839, the same year in which the daguerreotype was announced, but this achieved little success. In 1842, following Talbot’s 1841 announcement of his calotype process, Bayard adopted Talbot's negative-positive system and became one of the first in France to achieve successful results with paper photography. By 1851, when he was granted a Mission héliographique by the Commission des monuments historiques to document architecture in France, he had started using glass negatives alongside paper negatives. In the present photograph, we see the Moulin de la Petite Tour on the left and the Propriété Michelini in the centre, then located at 102 rue Lepic. This distinctive house also appears in another salt print by Bayard, Hill in Montmartre, between rue Lepic and rue d'Archampt , 1842, held in the collection of the J. Paul Getty Museum. Based on the size of the current lot, which is larger than Getty’s print, it is likely that this image was taken in the late 1840s or early 1850s. The Société française de photographie (SFP), where nearly all Bayard’s extant prints and negatives were bequeathed upon his death, holds similarly sized paper negatives, one of which is dated 1848, as well as a larger format salt print, dated 1851. La Butte Montmartre , offered here, is trimmed along the top edge with narrow brown margins along the left, right and bottom edges characteristic of Bayard’s salt prints. As of this writing, this is one of only two known prints made by Bayard of this image; the other print, held privately, is a trimmed salt print. The Musée Carnavalet and the Bibliothèque nationale de France each holds a similar group of images of Montmartre with dates ranging from 1852 to 1890, compiled by Henri Daudet (b.1847), a founding member of the Société d’Histoire et d’Archéologie Le Vieux Montmartre (founded in 1886). Included in each group is a similarly sized albumen print of the present image, printed after 1886 likely by Daudet. While the majority of photographs in both groups are those taken by Daudet between 1886 and 1890 for the aforementioned Société Vieux Montmartre, a number of images are dated between 1852 and 1855, including this image. Daudet is known to have made copies of photographs of Montmartre taken before his time for the Société Vieux Montmartre; whether he printed from Bayard’s original negative or re-photographed a positive is unknown. It is likely that the paper negative of the present image has not survived. The Musée Carnavalet attributes this image to Bayard and a manuscript annotation by an ‘M. Maillard’ on the mount verso of their albumen print (printed in 1887 likely by Daudet) dates Bayard’s photograph as taken after 1845 and before 1853 according to the construction dates of Propriété Michelini. This time frame corresponds with the dating of this photograph based on the holdings of Bayard’s work at the SFP and the Getty. We extend our sincere thanks to Anne de Mondenard, Chief Curator of Heritage, Photographs and Digital Images at the Musée Carnavalet and Bérengère de l’Épine, Head of Photographs at the Bibliothèque historique de la Ville de Paris for their expertise and assistance in our research. Read More
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.jpg "Source: Christie's")
.jpg "Source: Christie's")
