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VACQUERIE, AUGUSTE
Through photographs of casual objects (like Mrs.
Hugo’s purse, or her bracelet on her arm), or small
compositions (including the reproduction of the Hugo’s
portrait or drawing done by the writer), Vacquerie gave
a puzzling image of the family. This specifi c type of im-
ages, though, was never broadly circulated, and seemed
to have stayed with the closest relatives the Hugos and
Vacquerie had.
In 1854, 9 000 francs (in gold) had been spent already
on the project mentioned above, without any return. No
publisher could be found who was willing to issue the
work. All were afraid of the cost, and of the possible
censorship the volume might trigger.
Vacquerie’s and Hugo’s sons pictures were all taken
in Jersey, except a very few number when they moved
to Guernsey, in 1855. Then, although a lab was installed
at their new place, Hauteville House, the photographic
production slackened. The text Vacquerie had written
to accompany the pictures in Jersey et l’Archipel de la
Manche was published in 1856 and 1863, Les miettes
de l’Histoire. Some of the reprints he had done later on
were used by Vacquerie to illustrate his books (mainly
Profi ls et Grimaces), in order to turn them into person-
alized gifts.
Dropping photography, he concentrated on journalism
and literature, both of which he had never left behind.
Mathilde Leduc-Grimaldi
Biography
Auguste Vacquerie (1819–1895), schoolmate and
friend of Charles Hugo. After a classical curriculum,
he was fi rst a journalist and a literary critic, for French
newspapers like Le Globe, l’Époque. Very early, he
was introduced into the romantic coterie and became
a devoted admirer of Victor Hugo. He became part of
the family when his brother Charles Vacquerie married
Leopoldine Hugo, the writer elder child. After their
drowning, emotional ties grew even stronger between
Vacquerie and the Hugos.
He joined Hugo’s sons and friend Paul Meurice
venture in publishing L’Évènement (1848) where he
was more concerned in literature than politics. When, in
1851, this paper re-named l’Avènement du Peuple saw
most of its staff jailed, Vacquerie took it over. Then the
four of them were fi ned and jailed at the Conciergerie
in 1851, and the Evènement was shut down under
Napoleon’s dictatorial regime (along with him was jailed
his female cat Grise and again she was in Jersey where
Vacquerie took a famous photograph of her). Sharing
Hugos’political ideas, he fl ed from France, and lived in
Jersey, Guernsey and Brussels. Part of his work, such as
Profi ls et Grimaces (1856) or Les miettes de l’histoire
(1863), and his many letters to his friends or sister in
France depicted his life in Jersey with the Hugo family,
and showed his interest in photography. Yet, this hobby
actually lasted just a few years.
In 1869, he founded Le Rappel with Rochefort, Paul
Meurice, Charles et François-Victor Hugo, unrelentingly
fi ghting against Napoleon III Empire. After the Empire
fell, he backed the uprising of Paris (1871), as did V.
Hugo and his sons.
He also wrote poetry (L’Enfer de l’Esprit, in 1840),
a comedy (Souvent Femme Varie, in 1859) and dramas
(Tragaldabas in 1848, Les Funérailles de l’Honneur,
in 1861).
Back in France (around 1867), he continued his ac-
tivities as a journalist, writer, and was chosen (along with
Paul Meurice and Ernest Lefèvre, Vacquerie’s nephew)
by Victor Hugo to overlook the publication of the poet’s
entire work after his death.
See also: Bacot, Edmond; Wet Collodion Negative;
Daguerreotype; France; Hugo, Charles and François-
Victor; and Salted Paper Print.Further Reading
Lacan, Ernest, “Vues de Jersey par MM. Hugo frères et Auguste
Vacquerie”, in La Lumière, no. 41, 8 Octobre 1853.
Vacquerie, Auguste, Profi ls et Grimaces, Paris: Michel Lévy,
1856.
Vacquerie, Auguste, Les Miettes de l’histoire, Paris: Michel
Lévy, 1863.
Gaudon, Sheila, “Victor Hugo et la photographie: les débuts de
l’atelier photographique de Jersey (1855),” Bérénice, no. 7,
1995, 11–23.
Robb, Graham, Victor Hugo, London: Picador, 1997.
Heilbrun, Françoise and Molinari Danielle, ed., En collaboration
avec le soleil, Victor Hugo, photographies de l’exil, Paris:
RMN, 1998.
Stevens, Philip, Victor Hugo in Jersey, Chichester: Phillimore
& Co, [1985], 2002.
Prévost, Marie-Laure ed., L’Homme Océan, Paris: BNF, 2004.VALENTA, EDUARD (1857–1937)
Valenta was a professor at the Hohere Graphische
Bundes-Lehr- und Versuchsanstalt in Vienna from the
late 1800s to 1909 where he codirected with Josef Eder,
founding director and author of famously detailed The
History of Photography (Geschichte der Photographie),
and later succeeded him as the school’s head in 1923.
The school is one of the oldest and most important
with a specialty in photography and graphic arts in the
world.
Valenta and Eder carried out and published in journals
and annuals numerous studies of the spectra of elements
and compounds, including many of the dyes important
for photographic emulsions. They experimented with
emulsions and published a number of photographic
studies, including one of the earliest and most beautiful
collections of highly detailed X-ray images (1896).