21
of the Manchester Art Treasures Exhibition of 1857, in
collaboration with P&D Colnaghi.
John Hannavy
AGUADO DE LAS MARISMAS, COMTE
OLYMPE-CLEMENTE-ALEXANDRE-
AUGUSTE (1827–1894) AND VICOMTE
ONESIPE-GONSALVE (1830–1893)
The brothers, Olympe and Onésipe Aguado de las Maris-
mas epitomize the body of amateur enthusiasts in the
early 1850s who reveled in exploring the potential of
photography. Of the two brothers, Olympe was without
question the one who was most involved. Their father,
Alexandre Aguado, marquis de Las Marismas del Gua-
dalquivir, born in Spain, had become one of the richest
bankers of aristocratic Paris and one of the fi gures of
the Restoration and the monarchy of July. After having
fought the Napoleonean armies, he left Spain to emigrate
to France and was naturalized in 1828. About 1810, he
married Maria de Carmen Victoire Moreno, Spanish
like him. They had three sons: Alexandre, Olympe and
Onésipe. Olympe Clémente Alexandre Auguste Aguado
was born on February 3, 1827 in Paris and his younger
brother Onésipe on May 9, 1830 in Evry. With the death
of their father in 1842, a considerable fortune as well
as many vacation resorts were bequeathed to the three
sons. The life of Olympe Aguado, like that of his brother
Onésipe, was divided between socialite activities, family
intimacy and photography.
The reasons that pushed Olympe, and to a lesser
extent his brother Onsésipe, whose activity was much
more limited, to practice photography were, as was the
case very often within the confi nes of noncommercial
practice, diffi cult to defi ne. A favorite recreation of
distinguished and wealthy people, photography became
for Olympe an occasion to affi rm the artistic sensitivity
acquired from father. According to surviving records
from 1848–49. Olympe Aguado was introduced to
photography at the same time as Vicomte Joseph Vigier,
and like many amateurs in paris at the time, learned the
rudiments of photography from Gustave le Gray.
Aguado’s beginnings as a photographer remain as-
sociated with the daguerreotype, however there is only
one plate testifying that he used this process [Intérieur
d’un hôtel particulier—Paris, Société Francaise de Pho-
tographie]. According to the testimonies provided by the
critic Ernest Lacan, others’ works cunducted using the
daguerreotype attest to the beginnings of a regular and
varied practice. Parallel to the use of the daguerreotype,
it seems that in 1850 Aguado attempted the new tech-
nique of negative paper as shown in Composition avec
outils de jardinage (Composition of youth with tools
for gardening) which is preserved at the Getty Museum
in Los Angeles. Lastly, probably around 1850 or 1851,
Aguado practiced collodion on glass specifi cally adapt-
ed for portraits and instantaneous photographs. Olympe
Aguado had rather quickly acquired the knowledge of
the principal through varied practice. Olympe Aguado’s
production increased signifi cantly from 1853–1854. In
addition to the two principal techniques that he used,
negative paper for the landscapes, and collodion on
glass for portraits and images of the like, he increased
the frequency of his technical experiments, and regular
exposures as part of being an active emmber in the new
Société Française de Photographie.
One of the least-known aspects of the career of
Olympe Aguado is without doubt, the role of experi-
mentation that he had with the emergence of new photo-
graphic processes. It is indeed he who, in 1854 and in the
company of Edouard Delessert, developed the invention
of the carte-de-visite, which was eventually patented
the same year by Eugene Disderi. In the carte-de-visite
format, Olympe Aguado even created a certain number
of self-portraits along with portraits of his close relatives
and an imperial couple, as well as various indoor scenes.
According to writings of the time, he was also involved
in some of the fi rst attempts at photographic enlarge-
ment in which he carried out some spectacular images;
unfortunately there remain no known examples to date.
He also had an important role to play in the formation ofAguado, Onésipe. “Woman Seen from the Back.”
Courtesy: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Gilman
Collection, Purchase, Joyce F. Menschel Gift, 2005 (2005,
100.1) image. © The Metropolitan Museum of Art.