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BLANQUART-ÉVRARD, LOUIS-DÉSIRÉ
(1802–1872)
French photo publisher, inventor, photographer, and
essayist
Louis Désiré Blanquart-Évrard’s name remains indel-
ibly associated with the “imprimerie photographique”
(photographic printing factory) he opened in 1851 in
Loos-lès-Lille. This facility was the fi rst of its kind in
France, and the fi rst in the world operating at such an
industrial level. The printing workshop William Henry
Fox Talbot established in Reading (England) in 1844
was not on the same level. Blanquart-Évrard was a pho-
tographer himself, as well as an inventor. On the basis
of his important essay La photographie, ses origines,
ses progrès, ses transformations (1869) he deserves also
be considered a photo-historian.
Blanquart-Évrard was born in Lille on August 2nd
- Around 1826, he studied with an infl uential, young
chemist, Frédéric Kuhlmann (1803–1881). Soon, he was
an assistant in his teacher’s laboratory. This background
in chemistry became crucial to his future in photography.
He also practiced painting, chiefl y miniature painting on
ivory or porcelain, earning a few awards in local exhibi-
tions. It remains unclear when Blanquart-Évrard became
interested in photography. Like many others involved in
art and science, he seemingly reacted enthusiastically
to the announcement of Daguerre’s invention in 1839.
Around 1844, he heard about Talbot’s negative-positive
process, and, from that moment on, devoted himself to
perfecting this technique.
Blanquart-Évrard’s fi rst important results attracted
public attention in December 1846, when he submitted
several prints to the Académie des Sciences in Paris,
and in January 1847, when he was invited to present his
research. The academy warmly supported Blanquart-
Évrard’s work, summarized in a treatise he published
the same year. Though he didn’t explicitly acknowl-
edge it, his process was very close to Talbot’s, but he
improved it in many respects. The main difference was
that Blanquart-Évrard sensitized the paper by fl oating
it into the silver solution instead of merely applying it
superfi cially with a brush. Soaked with the solution,
the sheet became more sensitive, and the proofs more
accurate and stable than Talbot’s. Later, in 1849, Blan-
quart-Évrard experimented with glass plate negatives
prepared with albumen; one year later, he applied this
process to paper negatives.
From the beginning, Blanquart-Évrard’s work was
aimed toward adapting photography to industrial
production. His whole research was made in view of
achieving this goal, and the creation of a photographic
printing factory. There was a growing interest for this
project in French photographic circles. The Société
Héliographique (created January 1851, later Société
française de photographie, SFP), was the locus of in-
tense debate on the topic, as reported in their journal La
Lumière. A photographic printing factory was envisaged
as a major instrument for the progress of dissemination
of photographs, making possible the publication of
photographically illustrated albums, books and maga-
zines—the dream of a future when photography would
play a major role in visual communication. Not only
focusing on technical features, Blanquart-Évrard also
insisted on economical issues. According to his analysis,
three conditions were necessary for such a factory to be
profi table [La Lumière, April 13, 1851: 37–38]: ability to
produce regardless of weather (“not to depend upon the
vagaries of sun”); capability of supplying large quanti-
ties in a short time; and a price attractive to publishers.
Blanquart-Évrard’s motto was: “produce quickly, good
quality, and cheap.” He estimated that within one work-
day one could obtain 200 to 300 prints from a single
negative, for 5 to 15 cents a piece, according to size.
Moreover, provided the factory was well organized, 30
negatives could be treated in a single day, thus producing
5,000 to 6,000 prints. However, these estimates proved
to be too optimistic.
From a technical standpoint, Blanquart-Évrard found
the way “not to depend upon the vagaries of sun.” Instead
of a long exposure depending on weather conditions,
he used the property of the latent image, which could
be obtained in few minutes, then developed and fi xed.
The developing method represented a major advance.
It provided more stable prints, too. Blanquart-Évrard
submitted it to the Académie des Sciences in April
1851 and improved it constantly. He also presented it
at the 1851 London exhibition, and explained in a new
book, Traité de photographie sur papier. Once more,
Blanquart-Évrard adapted Talbot’s work, for Talbot had
already used the latent image principle to obtain his
negatives, but not positive prints.
Late in getting started, Blanquart-Évrard was over-
taken by Eugène Piot, who released the fi rst installment
of his Italie monumentale portfolio in June 1851. Francis
Wey praised Piot’s success and blamed Blanquart-Év-
rard for being overly concerned with theory and too
little with practice [La Lumière, August 17, 1851, 107
and 111]. Remarkably, Wey compared Piot’s prints to
“beautiful and large mezzotint engraving,” thus empha-
sizing the nascent competition between photography
and traditional printmaking for the market of illustrated
publications. Eventually, Blanquart-Évrard’s long-
awaited imprimerie photographique offi cially opened
in September 1851. As stated in an advertisement in
La Lumière (September 28, 1851), its mission was “to
propagate photography on paper by an abundant repro-
duction of prints.”