October 7, the auction house Christie's New York holds the auction "Journey to the history of photography: daguerreotypes by Joseph-Philibert Girault de Pranzhe" under which will be presented 74 pictures 40-ies of the XIX century from a private collection. Estimate the auction is $ 2 million.

Joseph-Philibert Girault de Pranzhe (Joseph-Philibert Girault de Prangey) was born in 1804 in a family of French aristocrats. He was fond of art in all its manifestations: from photography to Islamic architecture. After the invention of Louis Daguerre in 1839, the first long-life photographic images - daguerreotypes - Giro de Pranzhe turned to this new technology for their research in the field of architecture. The first pictures Pranzhe relate to 1841, when he undertook a three-year trip to Greece and Italy, as did the painters in the XVIII-XIX centuries. Classical Greek and Roman culture, from ancient ruins to more recent architectural specimens, was the subject of his first photographic experiments. His travels continued in Asia Minor, Syria, Palestine and Egypt, and he was able to vividly convey the beauty of these places.

The existence of the collection daguerreotypes Giraud de Pranzhe learned many years later, in 1920 -ies. Since then, his name is on a par with the names of other pioneers of photography.

Technique de Giraud Pranzhe researchers believe a brilliant combination of science and art. He manually adjusted the copper plate daguerreotypes by the format you want, arrange them vertically or horizontally depending on the subject.

This is the third auction Christie's daguerreotype Pranzhe. The previous two auctions held in London's department at Christie's in 2003 and 2004, respectively, and yielded 2.24 million and 456,244 dollars. At auction in 2003 for a record $ 916,126 dollars went under the hammer daguerreotype Pranzhe 1842 'Athens, the temple of Jupiter »(« Athènes. 1842. T. [emple] de J. [upiter] Olympien. Pris de l'Est ») , which has become one of the most expensive pictures in the world and the most expensive photograph of the author.

first daguerreotypes Pranzhe acquired for his collection in 1950 is one of the first historians of photography Helmut Gernshaym (Helmut Gernsheim ) and then, in 1966, his collection was bought by the University of Texas at Austin. More than 20 years later some of the daguerreotypes Pranzhe acquired collector Andre Jamet (Andre Jammes). After the auctions, Christie's 2003-2004 years, these rare photos have participated in exhibitions at the Museum of Orsay, Carnavalet Museum, the Getty and the MoMA in New York.

material was prepared by Maria Onuchina AI

Sources: artdaily.com , artinvestment.ru