Félix Thiollier (1842-1914), photographer

This first monograph in Paris devoted to Félix Thiollier will pay tribute to the industrialist from Saint Etienne who, at the age of 37, decided to live off his private income and concentrate on his passionate interest for local research and collecting art. Having satisfied these desires by publishing illustrated books aimed at promoting both the conservation of the heritage of Forez and the work of his artist friends – the most prominent of whom included Auguste Ravier, Paul Borel and Jean-Paul Laurens – these passions went on to produce a talented amateur photographer. Remaining resolutely on the fringes of the photographic circles of his time, Thiollier turned out to have created an original body of work which varied between picturesque, post-Romantic rural landscapes and a starkly lyrical view of an industrial world largely ignored by the artistic French photographers of the 19th and 20th centuries.