Among the highlights of a dedicated photographs sale that Ader is holding at Drouot on November 10 is a group of three albums of unpublished images that document the construction of the Sacré Coeur, estimated together at €30,000-40,000.
It will feature more than 180 exhibitors from around the world bringing a mix of modern and contemporary images as well as examples of vintage and early photos, plus books on the art.
A programme of artists’ talks and discussions will be held during the event and the event is also accompanied by an online digital viewing room.
Auction accompaniment
Alongside the fair Paris auction firms choose this time to hold dedicated sales or sale sections devoted to photographs.
Pictured here are highlights from two of the auctions taking place during the Paris Photo event.
Basilica building record
Among the highlights of a dedicated photographs sale that Ader is holding at Drouot on November 10 is a group of three albums of unpublished images that document the construction of the Sacré Coeur, estimated together at €30,000-40,000.
Among the highlights of a dedicated photographs sale that Ader is holding at Drouot on November 10 is a group of three albums of unpublished images that document the construction of the Sacré Coeur, one of the landmark buildings on the Parisian skyline.
The huge task of constructing the basilica on the Butte de Montmartre began in 1875 and was consecrated in 1919. Photography was used for site monitoring at the end of the 19th century and Paul Abadie, the architect of Sacré Coeur, asked the photographer Louis-Émile Durandelle (1839-1917), who used a ‘laboratory car’ to photograph Parisian buildings of the Second Empire and Third Republic, to document the building of the basilica.
Durandelle, together with his collaborator Albert Chevojon (1865- 1925), made a detailed record. On offer at Ader are three albums stamped Photo Chevojon – 9 rue Cadet – Paris, comprising respectively 127, 102 and 102 albumen prints from collodion glass negatives measuring 8½ x 11 to 13½ x 17in (22 x 28 to 34 x 43cm). They chart the construction from 1877-1901 with numerous dates on the mounts, in the negatives and on the back of the proofs as well as some technical notes and annotations.
The prints also show the people involved in the project and the surrounding neighbourhood at the time.
The estimate is €30,000-40,000.
Dealer Lepage's estate
A group of early views of Egypt by the French-born American Egyptologist and photographer John Beasley Greene (1832-56) are included in the Lepage sale. This 1854 salt print from a paper negative, mounted on card signed, dated and numbered i.3 in the image, is from his first trip to Egypt and shows the Hall of Thoth at Dakkeh. It has a guide of €5000-6000.
Millon will be selling 19th and 20th century photographs from the estate of the dealer François Lepage in an auction at the Salons du Trocadero on November 10.
Lepage was one of the earliest dealers to take an interest in photography, back in the 1960s. Based at the St Ouen flea market, he worked in partnership with another pioneering dealer, Gérard Lévy, buying photographs at the market, at Drouot and elsewhere.
Their partnership lasted until the early 1990s when they decided to end their association and divide up their stock of thousands of accumulated images into two equal parts, a process that took several years.
A large group of daguerreotypes by the pioneer French photographer Hippolyte Fizeau (1819-96) features in the sale including this half plate daguerreotype from c.1840 showing a hay cart in a farm courtyard at Suresnes. It has an estimate of €3000-4000.
Lepage’s preferences tended more towards the oldest acquisitions and this is reflected in the 233-lot sale at Millon where there are works by numerous early pioneering names in the field such as Nadar, Gustave le Gray, Edouard Baldus, Hippolyte Fizeau, Louis-Auguste Bisson, Louis Adolphe Humbert de Molard, John Beasley Greene and Félix Teynard.
Pictured here are just two examples.
