The finest known print of one of Regnault's most famous works.


Label on the verso with the written initials V.R.

Also on the verso in pencil is the title and ink stamp with 'Collection Albert Gilles'.

A famous physicist and early experimenter with the photographic process invented by Talbot, Victor Regnault was a prime mover in early French photography. With Delacroix, among others, he founded the Société Héliographique in 1851, was founding president of the subsequent Société Française de Photographie in 1854, and as director of the Sèvres porcelain factory from 1852 to 1871 made photography a central focus of technical and artistic experiment there.

Regnault began photographing the river near the factory at Sevres soon after he moved there in 1852. This Meudon-Sevres stretch of the river had been favoured already by landscape painters and would inspire Barbizon painters such as Corot.

Regnault often photographed early in the morning to exploit a misty light and before the river was too busy, giving a timeless, romantic view of the tranquil countryside.

This print was the sort praised by Paul Périer as being "broad and delicate at the same time, [possessing] detail without harshness, just the right amount of softness in the midgrounds, and finally, having a family resemblance with the best works of the great schools of painting."

This print may be compared to a softer print of the subject in the collection of the Musée d'Orsay, Paris.

Sèvres et les Environs, Bords de la Seine [Sèvres and the Surroundings, Banks of the Seine], likely 1852-1853
Salt print, possibly lightly albumenised, from a waxed paper negative.

I m a g e /s h e e t : 3 0 . 5 x 3 8 . 5 c m ( 1 2 x 1 5 1 / 8 i n .)
Initialled ‘V.R.c.N°’ by Regnault ink on a label, annotated incorrectly ‘Sèvres et les Environs – Manufacture – /18. / Cours et Logement du Charpentier’ in French and variously numbered, in other hands, all in pencil on the verso.

This work is the only known print of this image to date and is likely unique. Musée d’Orsay holds a salt print of a variant, showing more image along the lower and right edges, which they date about 1853.

This masterful view of the banks of the Seine by Henri-Victor Regnault is arguably among the most accomplished images in his oeuvre. Here we see a scene devoid of people, which nevertheless reminds us of the life that occupied that world. Along the curve of the Seine are structures, probably industrial, and on the nearest one, we can almost make out the writing painted along the wall. Floating in the river are a few moored boats, and in the foreground,
a pile of crates and a wheelbarrow line the river’s edge. In Victor Regnault and the Advance of Photography, Laurie Dahlberg argues that his photographs of the banks of the Seine represent Regnault’s resistance of ‘neat interpretation and classifcation’ and ‘refusal to adhere consistently to either a romantic or prosaic point of view’ (p. 171). His skillful capturing of light, as seen here, was a result of his familiarity with scientific studies of light combined with his artistic sensibilities.

The manuscript annotation ‘Cours et Logement du Charpentier’ [Carpenter’s House and Courtyard] in an early yet unidentifed hand on the verso of the present work is incorrect. The same annotation appears on the mount verso of another photograph by Regnault, also owned originally by Andre Jammes, which is held at the Getty Museum and is a close-up view of the carpenter’s house. The title we have given the present work comes from the annotation on the mount of a variant, showing more image along the lower and right edges, held at the Musee d’Orsay: ‘Bords de la Seine. Vue prise de la Rive gauche, d’amont en aval, entre le Bas-Meudon et le Bas- Sèvres’ [Sèvres and Surroundings, Banks of the Seine, View taken from the Left Bank from upstream to downstream between Bas- Meudon and Bas-Sèvres].

The photograph, offered here, has a distinguished provenance, having come originally from the great Parisian art collector Albert Gilles. Gilles was a pioneering collector of photography who loaned photographs to many signifcant exhibitions; his extensive collection of daguerreotypes now resides at the Bibliothèque nationale de France. The present lot was later acquired by Andre Jammes in the 1960s and was sold in the historic sale of his collection in 2002.

A leading fgure among the Sèvres photographers, Regnault began to photograph in the late 1840s following the announcement of Blanquart-Evrard’s modifcations to Talbot’s calotype process in 1847. A founding member of the Societe heliographique in 1851, alongside his Parisian colleagues Nègre (lot 1), Baldus (lot 6) and Bayard (lot 7), Regnault directed the porcelain factory at Sèvres from 1852 until 1871 during which he established a photographic department. A key member of his circle was Louis-Remy Robert, head of the painting workshop, whose intimate portrait is also offered as part of the Hyman Collection (lot 11).

We extend our sincere thanks to André Jammes for his expertise and assistance in our research.