I am delighted to invite you to a very special exhibition.
Over the last twenty years I have been obsessed with the earliest French photographs, an intimate world of rare salt prints and unique paper and glass negatives, a place filled with stunning landscapes and tender genre scenes. Now as the gallery refocuses on twentieth century British art and photography, and our private collection and foundation focuses on supporting British photographers, the moment has come to part with some of my favourite pictures. Today, seeing the works on the gallery wall, I was reminded again, how much I love these sublime images, but I look forward to helping them find new homes. (James Hyman)
Paths to Impressionism: Photography and the French Landscape 1850-1870 focuses on several of the most important French photographers of the 19th century and places at its centre the paintings, drawings and photographs of one of the most fascinating figures, the painter and photographer André Giroux.
Through the work of Giroux and his contemporaries, the exhibition explores the dialogue between the different media and demonstrates the way photography forged its own aesthetic.
At the centre of the exhibition is the motif of the tree and running through the show is a focus on pathways, roads, bridges and rivers. Using these motifs, the exhibition examines the ways in which Industrialisation and Modernisation increased mobility and transformed the French landscape. Using a range of media - with photography at the forefront - it explores how mid 19th Century French photographers anticipated the Impressionism of the final quarter of the century.
The exhibition will showcase rare salt prints and paper and glass negatives by Count Olympe Aguado, Edouard Baldus, Adalbert Cuvelier, Eugène Cuvelier, Alphonse Delaunay, Giraudon's Artist, André Giroux, Gustave Le Gray, Jean-Jacques Heilmann, Charles Marville, Charles Nègre, Henri-Victor Regnault, Louis-Remy Robert, Ferdinand Tillard and Josef, Vicomte Vigier.
One of the highlights of the exhibition is the inclusion of incredibly rare glass plate negatives by Alphonse Delaunay, Giraudon’s Artist and Charles Nègre.