1244
photograph was being the work of an author, as original
as the written word—a major milestone in copyright
protection.
The character of Julius Bianchi in the 1902 novel
The Fortunes of Oliver Horne is believed to have been
based on Napoleon Sarony.
John Hannavy
See also: Daguerreotype; Cartes-de-Visite; and
British Journal of Photography.
Further Reading
Sarony’s Living Pictures: Photographed from Life, New York,
Chasmar, 1894–95.
Bassham, Ben L, The Theatrical Photographs of Napoleon Sa-
rony, Kent, OH: Kent State University Press, 1978.
Johnson, William S, Nineteenth Century Photography: An An-
notated Bibliography 1839–1879, London, Mansell Publish-
ing, 1990.
Bayliss, Paul, and Anne Bayliss, Photographers in Mid-Nine-
teenth Century Scarborough—The Sarony Years, Scarborough,
Bayliss 1998.
SAUNDERS, WILLIAM THOMAS
(1832–1892)
English photographer
William Saunders, one of the fi nest nineteenth-century
photographers of China and Japan, operated a studio
in Shanghai from around 1861 until at least 1887. Like
Felice Beato in Japan, Saunders’ success was built upon
the production of souvenir albums of Chinese scenery
and genre studies for foreign residents and visitors.
Much of this work has survived and his talent is self-
evident. His Chinese landscape portfolio of Shanghai,
Ningpo and Foochow was supplemented by views of
Peking and Japan. He made his fi rst photographic tour
to Japan in 1862, accumulating some 90 images but,
surprisingly, only a few of these have so far been identi-
fi ed and are in the Worswick Collection, Tokyo. In May,
1863 Saunders offered handcolored photographs and
may well have been the fi rst commercial studio in the
Far East to do so. Apart from his larger-format work,
which also included multi-plate panoramas of Chinese
and Japanese towns and cities, Saunders also sold cartes
de visite and stereoviews.
Having enjoyed considerable commercial success,
he sold all of his stock and equipment in 1871 and re-
turned to England to marry. Perhaps his marriage failed
because, by the following year, he was back operating
his studio in Shanghai. His wife died in England in
1887 and shortly afterwards he decided to retire and
went home. Returning to Shanghai on a visit in 1892,
he caught bronchitis and died.
Terry Bennett
SAUVAIRE, HENRI (1831–1896)
French photographerHenri Sauvaire was born in Marseille. Raised by his
Uncle Marius, a merchant who often dealt with the
Near East, he soon became familiar with Orient. As
Henri de Clercq (1836–1901) or Gustave de Beaucorps
(1825–1906) he was among those talented amateur
photographers fond of Orient. He certainly learned
photography in France in the mid-fi fties and practiced
it during thirty years along with a successful diplomatic
carrier started in 1857 in Lebanon, as a drogman in
Beyruth, and ended in 1885 in Morocco as the French
consul. He then came back to France, near Marseille,
where he died.
Unfortunately only some of his photographs are
still kept today (the Musée d’Orsay received in 1995
from René and Bernard Sauvaire a very important gift
of 160 prints, both from paper and glass negatives).
Most of the remaining prints have been taken between
1860 and 1866 in Lebanon, Syria and around the Bos-
phorus. Henri Sauvaire was a fi ne observer of oriental
life and landscapes. He revealed his sense for artistic
composition as well as his technical abilities in large
Beirut panoramas, sad views of the Christian quarter in
Damas burnt down after the civil war in 1860 as well
as in beautiful prints of the famous Damas Omayad
mosque.
Familiar with occidental circles in Lebanon he also
did several photographs of Camille Rogier (1805–1870)
studio. Painter and illustrator—he has illustrated the
fi rst French edition of Hoffmann’s tales; Rogier was
close friend to Théophile Gautier, Gérard de Nerval
and Gustave Flaubert. Even if he almost left his artistic
carrier for a more lucrative position in postal adminis-
tration, Rogier stands in front of Sauvaire’s camera as
a painter, before a white canvas, surrounded by friends.
The tableaux vivants Sauvaire composed in the eccen-
tric French man studio show the photographer sense
of humor as well as his mastery of lightening. His soft
portraits of women whose beauty is enhanced by the
sumptuous fabrics of their Turkish clothes underline
Sauvaire’s delicacy.
In 1866, Sauvaire traveled with Christian Edouard
Mauss around the Dead See thanks to an archeologi-
cal expedition supported by the Duc de Luynes. He
took there almost one hundred prints to be published
by Melchior de Vogüé in 1875. The views of the ru-
ined crusaders castles gave him fi rst rank, along with
Auguste Salzmann (1824–1872), as masters of early
archeological photography. Fine scholar, experienced
numismatist, Sauvaire then published and translated
several books on Oriental civilization.
Dominique de Font-Réaulx