The Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas and the Musée Nicéphore Niépce have jointly announced that Niépce's heliograph View from the Window at Le Gras will be shown at the musuem in 2027 as part of France's commemoration of the 200th anniversary of photography. This will be the first time it has been shown in France since 1827 when Niépce left it in Britain, and only the second time it has been in Europe since Helmut Gernsheim sold his collection to the university in 1963. The plate was shown at the Reiss Englehorn Museum, Mannheim, Germany, in 2012-2013 in an exhibition devoted to Gernsheim.
The heliograph, the only known pont de view or photograph made from life is the earliest known photography and will be featured in an exhibition Imprint of Helios 1826-1827 at the Niépce Museum in Chalon-sur-Saône, close to Niépce's home and where the plate was made, from 26 April to 20 June 2027.
Prior to its display in France the heliograph will be included in an exhibition Radical Forms: Photographic Experimentation from the Ransom Center's Collections which opens on 27 February 2027. As part of that the 15th biennial Flair symposium Niépce Now: Origins and Futures of the Photographic Image will be held at the Ransom Center from 8-9 April 2027. Both events are official designated events of the French Minsitry of Culture's Bicentennial of Photography.
See: https://www.museeniepce.com/ and https://www.hrc.utexas.edu/niepce-heliograph/
Image: Joseph Nicéphore Niépce (French, 1765–1833), [View from the Window at Le Gras], 1827. Heliograph on pewter, 16.7 x 20.3 x .15 cm. Gernsheim Collection, 964:0000:0001.
