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Biography
Charles Nègre was born on 9 May 1820 in Grasse,
France. He studied at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris,
apprenticing in the studios of Delaroche, Drolling and
Ingres. He exhibited paintings at the annual Salon in
Paris on several occasions between 1843 and 1864
and was appointed drawing instructor at the Ecole
Supérieure du Commerce [Higher School of Business]
in Paris in 1852. He took up photography in 1844 as
an aid to his painting. Particularly known for his genre
studies, he also made extensive photographic surveys
of the Midi region in 1852 and of Paris landmarks dur-
ing the mid-1850s. In 1858 he undertook a government
commission to photograph selections from the Louvre
collection, followed by a commission to photograph the
Imperial Asylum in Vincennes in 1859. He exhibited
his photographic work in over two dozen exhibitions
throughout Europe, including the exhibition of the Inter-
national Society of Industry in Amsterdam in 1855, the
Universal Exhibition in Paris in 1855, 1863, 1867, 1868
and 1878, the French Photography Society exhibition in
1855, 1859, 1861 and 1864, the International Exhibition
of Industrial Arts in Brussels in 1857 and 1861 and the
Universal Exhibition in London in 1862. He patented
an improved photogravure process in 1856. In 1863 he
moved to Nice, where he opened a commercial studio
and taught drawing at the Lycée Imperial [Imperial High
School] until 1878. He died in Grasse, France, on 16
January 1880.
See also: Delaroche, Paul; Le Gray, Gustave; Fenton,
Roger; Le Secq, Henri; Daguerreotype; Calotype and
Talbotype; Mission héliographique; Baldus, Édouard;
Société héliographique Française; Société française
de photographie; and Photogravure.
Further Reading
Borcoman, James, Charles Nègre 1820–1880, Ottawa: National
Gallery of Canada, 1976.
Heilbrun, Françoise (ed.), Charles Nègre: Photographe 1820–,
Paris: Musées Nationaux, 1980.
Jammes, André, Charles Nègre Photographe 1820–1880, Paris:
André Jammes, 1963.
Nègre, Charles, De la Gravure Héliographique, Son Uitilité, Son
Origine, Son Application à l’Etude de l’Histoire, des Arts et
des Sciences Naturelles [On Heliographic Engraving, Its Use-
fulness, Its Origin, Its Application to the Study of History, the
Arts and the Natural Sciences], Nice: V.-E. Gauthier, 1866.
Nègre, Joseph. The Riviera of Charles Nègre: First Photographs
of the Côte d’Azur (1852–1865), Aix-en-Provence: Edisud-
TAC-Motifs, 1991.
Rouillé, André, La Photographie en France, Textes & Contro-
verses: une anthologie 1816–1871 [Photography in France,
Texts and Controversies: an anthology, 1816–1871], Paris ,
Macula, 1989.
Sotheby’s, La Photographie III, Collection Marie-Thérèse et
André Jammes: L’Œuvre de Charles Nègre [Photography III,
the Marie-Thérèse and André Jammes Collection: The Work
of Charles Nègre], Paris: Sotheby’s, 2002.NEGRETTI AND ZAMBRA (1850–1899)
Optical instrument fi rmNegretti & Zambra was established in 1850. Of the two
partners, Henry Negretti and Joseph Warren Zambra,
the former is by far the better documented and became
known as “one of the pioneers” of British photography
through his improvements to apparatuses and through
his marketing of high-quality stereoscopic views.
Enrico Angelo Negretti was born on 13 November
1818 in Como, Italy. Leaving home at an early age, he
had arrived in England by the time he was twelve years
old and became apprenticed to Francis Augustus Pizzala
at nineteen. By 1839 he set up his own establishment as
a glass blower; after a brief partnership with the widow
of another glass blower and barometer maker, by 1845
he was again in business for himself, soon expanding
to include a range of philosophical instruments and
running two branches, at 19 Leather Lane and 9 Hatton
Garden. On 1 July 1845 he married Mary Peet, who
subsequently worked in the fi rm; the couple had fi ve
children, of whom three survived their infancy.
On 24 April 1850, Negretti entered into partnership
with Joseph Warren Zambra, born at Saffron Waldon in
1822 to an English father and an Italian mother. Negretti
& Zambra seized the opportunity to promote their wares
at the Great Exhibition of 1851, where they won a prize
medal for glass instruments shown in Class 10, “Philo-
sophical instruments and their dependent processes,”
the same category that featured several photographic
apparatuses, such as an early stereoscope constructed
by Louis Jules Duboscq. Following their success at the
Crystal Palace, Negretti & Zambra were named me-
teorological instrument makers to the Queen, but they
soon became better known for their stock of equipment
relating to the daguerreotype, calotype, and collodion
processes—cameras, glass plates, head rests, tripods,
dark tents, frames, and chemicals. When the Crystal
Palace re-opened in Sydenham in 1854, Negretti & Zam-
bra were appointed offi cial photographers and a year
later sent a team of operators, including Philip Henry
Delamotte, to produce a number of instantly popular
images of Queen Victoria’s reception of Napoleon III
and the Empress Eugénie.
As business grew, the company moved to larger and
more numerous facilities: 59 Cornhill (1860–72), 1
Hatton Gardens (1860–69), 107 Holborn Hill (1860–
61), 122 Regent Street (1862–76), 153 Fleet Street
(1865–73), Holborn Circus (1870–76), Charterhouse
Street (1870–76), 45 Cornhill (1873–76), Crystal Palace,
Sydenham (1883–99). The last-named establishment