Charles Nègre

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Charles Nègre (1820–1880) was a pioneering photographer born in Grasse, France. He studied under the painters Paul Delaroche, Ingres and Drolling before establishing his own studio at 21 Quai Bourbon on the Île Saint-Louis, Paris. Delaroche encouraged the use of photography as research for painting; Nègre started with the daguerreotype process before moving on to calotypes. Pictures like his "Chimney-Sweeps Walking", an albumen print taken on the Quai Bourbon in 1851, may have been staged studies for paintings, but are nevertheless considered important to photographic history for their being early instances of an interest in capturing movement and freezing it forever in one moment.^[1] The interesting shapes in his 1852 photograph of buildings in Grasse have caused it to be seen as a precursor to art photography.^[2] He used both albumen and salt print, and was known also as a skilled printer of photographs, using a gravure method of his own development. In 1861, Nègre retired to Nice, where he painted views and portraits for holiday makers. He died in Grasse in 1880.^[1]

[edit] See also

• Gustave Le Gray
• Henri Le Secq

[edit] References

1. ^ ^{a b} Ian Jeffrey. The Photography Book, 2nd ed., London: Phaidon, 2000. (p. 343)
2. ^ Benjamin Gennochio. "They Didn't Forget the Camera", New York Times, July 31, 2005.

• "The Barrel Organ Player With Two Children Listening", Musée d'Orsay website, unsigned.