(Edme Quenedey, 1756 - 1830). Profile Portrait of a Man. 1809. Physionotrace engraving (9 x 8 cm) from a rectangular copper plate (14,5 x 10,5 cm) on thick ivory paper (26,5 x 18 cm). With engraved text below the image Dess. au Physionotrace et Gravé par Quenedey rue neuve-des-petits-champs no. 15. à Paris. Dated 1809 in pencil below the image.
Physionotrace portraits were made by first producing a silhouette portrait of the sitter. This portrait was then transferred in reduced form onto a copper plate by using a mechanical apparatus which was invented by Gilles-Louis Chrétien in 1786. In 1788, shortly after this invention, Chrétien founded a very successful portrait studio in Paris together with Edme Quenedey. The latter established his own portrait studio in Paris, which was also very successful. In Paris, at the height of the "Daguerreotypomanie" in 1847, the most successful photographers produced up to three thousand portaits annually, while there were only two studios in Paris between 1786 and c. 1810 which produced a relatively small number of physionotrace engravings. Consequently very few of these intriguing portaits are preserved today. Because of their origin and the realism contained in physionotrace portraits they are true photo-graphic objects and are therefore classified as a forerunner of photography. - A very attractive and excellent print with beautiful aquatint tones in brown and a strong platemark.
Lit.: H. Beraldi/R. Portalis. Les graveurs du dix-huitième siècle, Tome III. Paris 1882, pp 364-365.
Gisèle Freund. Photographie und Gesellschaft. Munich 1976, pp. 16-23.
Beaumont Newhall. The History of Photography (5th Ed.). Boston 1994, pp. 10-11.
Physionotrace portraits were made by first producing a silhouette portrait of the sitter. This portrait was then transferred in reduced form onto a copper plate by using a mechanical apparatus which was invented by Gilles-Louis Chrétien in 1786. In 1788, shortly after this invention, Chrétien founded a very successful portrait studio in Paris together with Edme Quenedey. The latter established his own portrait studio in Paris, which was also very successful. In Paris, at the height of the "Daguerreotypomanie" in 1847, the most successful photographers produced up to three thousand portaits annually, while there were only two studios in Paris between 1786 and c. 1810 which produced a relatively small number of physionotrace engravings. Consequently very few of these intriguing portaits are preserved today. Because of their origin and the realism contained in physionotrace portraits they are true photo-graphic objects and are therefore classified as a forerunner of photography. - A very attractive and excellent print with beautiful aquatint tones in brown and a strong platemark.
Lit.: H. Beraldi/R. Portalis. Les graveurs du dix-huitième siècle, Tome III. Paris 1882, pp 364-365.
Gisèle Freund. Photographie und Gesellschaft. Munich 1976, pp. 16-23.
Beaumont Newhall. The History of Photography (5th Ed.). Boston 1994, pp. 10-11.
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Auction details
15th-20th Century Art & Fine Photography
6:00 AM PT - Jun 11th, 2008
offered by
Galerie Bassenge
Erdener Str. 5a
Berlin, 14193
Berlin, 14193
