1290
currents of the so-called French and English schools.
the Association belge de Photographie, having hosted
a well-received exhibition of British pictorialists in
1892, briefl y lost the initiative when an independent
Salon photographique was co-organized by Hannon at
the Cercle artistique et littéraire [Artistic and Literary
Circle] in Brussels in 1895, at which prints by leading
lights of French pictorialism such as Demachy and
Puyo featured alongside Belgian work. Henceforward,
the Association belge de Photographie regained and
maintained momentum, organising major salons in
1896, 1898, and 1902. Its size in Belgium and reputa-
tion abroad enabled it to overcome with ease the threat
posed by the small secessionist movement L’Effort,
active 1901–1905 around interior designer Léon Sney-
ers (1877–1949) and photographic supply-house owner
Léon Bovier (1865–1923). Other leading pictorialists
in Belgium, notably Gustave Marissiaux and Léonard
Misonne, remained loyal to the Association.
The increase in the medium’s popularity and profi le
at the turn of century gave rise to two very different
institutional initiatives in photograph collecting. As a
sign of pictorialism’s social acceptance, a photography
section was established within the Musées royaux des
arts décoratifs et industriels [Royal Museums of Applied
Arts] in Brussels in 1896. the Musée photographique, as
it was known, purchased a total of 68 exhibition prints
shown at pictorialist salons in Brussels between 1895
and 1901, 27 of which remain in the holdings of the
Cinquantenaire Museum up to the present day. With the
waning of pictorialism, the will to pursue the acquisition
of photographic prints as artworks dissipated in Bel-
gium. A Musée belge de Photographies Documentaires
(Belgian Museum of Documentary Photography) was
founded in 1901 as an offshoot of the Photo-Club de
Belgique, along the lines of Léon Vidal’s Musée Docu-
mentaire in Paris. It was reported shortly afterwards
that the Museum possessed 23,000 items. Renamed the
Institut International de Photographie in 1905, the fate
of this body’s collection is unclear.
Steven F. Joseph
See also: Daguerre, Louis-Jacques-Mandé; Niépce de
Saint-Victor, Claude Félix Abel; Claine, Guillaume;
Fierlants, Edmond; Société française de photographie;
Chevalier L.Pt. Dubois de Nehaut; Maes, Melchior
Florimond Joseph; van Monckhoven, Désiré Charles
Emanuel; Photo-Club de Paris; Puyo, Émile Joachim
Constant; Demachy, (Léon) Robert; Marissiaux,
Gustave; Misonne, Leonard; and Vidal, Léon.
Further Reading
Association belge de Photographie, sous le protectorat du Roi.
XXVe anniversaire de la fondation 1874–1898. Album jubi-
laire [Association belge de Photographie, under the King’s
patronage. 25th anniversary of its establishment 1874–1898.
Jubilee album.], Brussels: Emile Bruylant, 1898.
Claes, Marie-Christine, La collection des Pictorialistes, Brussels:
Musée du Cinquantenaire (MRAH), 1998.
Coppens, Jan, Laurent Roosens and Karel Van Deuren, “Door
de enkele werking van het licht”: introductie en integratie
van de fotografi e in België en Nederland [“By the sole ac-
tion of light”: Introduction and Integration of Photography in
Belgium and the Netherlands], Antwerp: Gemeentekrediet,
1989.
Joseph, Steven F., tristan Schwilden and Marie-Christine Claes,
Directory of Photographers in Belgium 1839–1905, Antwerp
and Rotterdam: Uitgeverij C. de Vries-Brouwers, 1997
Leblanc, Claire, ‘‘L’Effort,’,’ cercle d’art photographique belge
(1901–1910) [“L’Effort,” Belgian photographic art circle
(1901–1910)], Brussels: Editions La Lettre volée, 2001
Vercheval, Georges (ed.), Pour une histoire de la photographie
en Belgique [Contributions to a History of Photography in
Belgium], Charleroi: Musée de la Photographie, 1993.SOCIETIES, GROUPS, INSTITUTIONS,
AND EXHIBITIONS IN CANADAProfessional Organizations
Given Canada’s small population spread out over a large
geographic area and the existence of only a handful of
professional photographers in any one urban centre up
until the 1890s throughout the country, many Canadian
professional and amateur photographers took out mem-
berships in United States and international associations
such as the National Photographic Association (founded
1868) and its successor the Photographers Association
of America (established 1880). Montreal’s Alexander
Henderson in 1859 was the fi rst member from North
America of England’s Stereoscopic Exchange Club.
Lacking a local social or business outlet other than
newspapers and short-lived magazines, commercial
photographers regularly communicated information
about their business (and sometimes personal) issues.
Montreal’s William Notman started in the 1860s with
The Philadelphia Photographer and Anthony’s Photo-
graphic Bulletin. Victoria’s Hannah Maynard submitted
samples of her own and her husband Richard’s work
in the 1880s and 1890s to the St. Louis and Canadian
Photographer.
Many commercial photographers worked in isola-
tion and, except for the most successful, appear to
have mistrusted one another. Some of the newspaper
advertising was extremely vitriolic. One of the initial
attempts at a formal organization for professionals,
the Toronto Photographic Society, lasted about a year
from its start around March 1869. The society formed
to battle price cutting. The St. John Photographers’
Association made an even briefer appearance on the
scene; its president, Carson Flood, is listed in an 1871
national business directory. The Photographic Asso-
ciation of Canada, centred in Ontario, organized on