Sotheby’s 15 May Photographs auction in Paris offers an exquisite selection of works ranging from 19th century daguerreotypes to contemporary photographic oeuvres. The undisputed highlight in the historic photography section is Gustave LeGray’s exceptional album of nine salt prints documenting the Salon de Paris 1852, estimated between € 240,000 and 280,000* ($315,000-368,000). One rare surviving copy is known to be in the collection of the Musée d’Orsay.
Both copies equally contain nine salt paper prints each bearing the photographer's blind-stamp "Gustave Legray".
In both cases, the ninth plate represents not a view of the 1852 exhibition but a view of the 1850/51 Salon beautifully accentuating a group of sculptures, amongst which the Toilette d'Atalante by Pradier now in the Louvre.
On two of the views dating from 1852 Gustave Courbet's Les Demoiselles de village, today in New York's MET, is noticed to have changed place completely. In fact, the regulations of the Salon allowed for five days of closure in order to rear- range the hanging of the exhibits. It is likely that the painting which belonged to a notorious collector, the Comte de Morny, was initially exhibited in the main room and moved to a less prominent place following unfavorable reviews.
The two known copies of this album have the same dark-green shagreen binding, the one here only differing in its more elaborate embellishment, such as the ad- ditional gilded frame lines, the imperial eagle above the gilded title letters on the front and the gilded crowned monogram M on the back cover. The monogram may potentially be attributed to Mathilde LaeticiaWilhelmine, cousin of Na- poléon III. At the time of Le Gray's commission the director general of the French national museums and authority over the institution in charge of organising the Salon was Comte Emilien de Nieuwerkerke who, between 1846 and 1869, was of- ficially the companion of Princess Mathilde.
Princess Mathilde was very much involved in Paris' cultural scene, presiding over her own salon, a patron of the arts and well acquainted with Nadar who portrayed her. Of her companion, the comte de Nieuwerkerke who headed the Louvre and the Salon, exists a portrait by Gustave Le Gray in the Société française de Photographie.
Four years after the 1852 Salon Le Gray, today the most coveted 19th century photographer at auction, showed his grand maritime views in public for the first time at the Photographic Society in London. It would be the starting point for his international success that remains undiminished to this day.
The auction catalogue can be found here.
Comments
Thanks for the information, Gordon!
The Department of Photographs of the Getty Museum also has a copy of this album, with the same oddity of the inclusion of a ninth plate from the 1850/1851 salon.