984
[Heliographic Society] and the Société française de
la photographie [French Photography Society], from
his fi rst daguerreotype experiments Nègre was deeply
involved in promoting photography and contributing
to its technical improvement. From 1854 to 1867, in
an attempt to capture the generous De Luynes prize
for the advancement of photogravure, he perfected a
process that used gilding via galvinoplasty to increase
tonal ranges in prints. Though he lost the competition,
he was invited to present his results—fi rst patented in
1856—at industrial exhibitions throughout Europe.
His health failing, Nègre returned to his native Midi in
1863, fi nding work as a high school drawing instructor
and opening a commercial studio in Nice. He continued
to promote his photogravure process through writings,
lectures and exhibitions, but was never able to parlay his
efforts into commercial success beyond a small series
of photogravures of Chartres cathedral assembled for
the government in 1858 and a contract to produce the
plates for the Duc de Luynes’ book, Voyage à la Mer
Morte [Voyage to the Dead Sea] in 1871.
Nègre’s photographs from his Nice years were lim-
ited to standard carte-de-visite portraits and Riviera
views intended for the tourist trade. When he died in
Grasse on 16 January 1880, his career had fallen into
obscurity, his photogravure process having long been
forgotten and the emerging dry-plate process making
motion photography a banal affair available to all with
a camera. It was only with the exhibition of selections
from his personal archives in the 1960s and 1970s that
his reputation was reestablished.
Stephen MontieroNÈGRE, CHARLES
Nègre, Charles. A Street in Grasse,
Montée de Fontlaugière.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art,
Purchase, Jennifer and Joseph
Duke Gift and Chairman’s Council
Acquisitions Fund, 2000 (2000.286)
Image © The Metropolitan Museum
of Art.