1200
and expertise in calotypy, they practiced independently
and cannot be called collaborators. Thus, while Robert
and Regnault’s relationship was never close—unlike
Robert’s friendship Count Olympe Aguado, with whom
he made photographic outings—it did strengthen the
place of photography at the manufacture. He may also
have taught photography to others at the factory. More-
over, Robert’s quasi professional photographic activities
in the fi fties leave no doubt that photography virtually
became his second career. He was particularly active as
a landscape and architectural photographer, beginning
fi rst by photographing in the nearby Parc de Saint-Cloud
with his small portrait camera (approximately 27 × 22
cm), and later acquiring a larger camera (approximately
33 × 38 cm) for views. His invention of a negative holder
that could be loaded with up to fi fteen dry paper nega-
tives allowed greater ease photographing in the fi eld. In
1853 he published a portfolio of thirteen architectural
views in Blanquart-Evrard’s edition Souvenirs de Ver-
sailles, and his photographs of medieval architecture in
Brittany were copied in lithography for publication in
the fi rst volume of Anciens évêhés de Bretagne (atlas
and fi rst volume, 1855). Traveling in Normandy in the
early 1850s, he also made a series of large views on the
grounds of the Chateau d’Eu. These muted pictures,
which feature rustic, timbered sheds, barns, hay wag-
ons, ancient, massive beech trees, and the architecture
of the 18th-century glassworks on site, are indebted to
the model of the Barbizon painters, who were in turn
indebted to Robert’s grandfather Demarne, who had
been instrumental in introducing French painters to
naturalistic Flemish landscape painting. Robert in fact
maintained close friendships with two of the principal
painters associated with Barbizon: Camille Corot, a
family friend who lived adjacent to Sèvres, and Constant
Troyon, an intimate friend since boyhood.
Robert’s most well known photographic work, how-
ever, was in still life, and from the beginning of his pho-
tographic career he had envisioned using photography
to document the extensive Sèvres output and historical
collections. He photographed a few arrangements of
ceramic vases, statuettes, glassware, and artist’s props
using paper negatives, but expanded and refi ned the
project for the 1855 Exposition Universelle. The Manu-
facture de Sèvres was to be France’s showcase institution
for this international exhibition, and Robert thought to
make photographic reproductions the factory’s show-
pieces. Seeking a more subtly detailed image, he learned
the albumen-on-glass process from Hippolyte Bayard,
and produced a group of salted paper prints from glass
negatives of Sèvres wares that was offered for sale at
the exhibition. Robert won critical notice with these
pictures in several photographic salons and exhibitions
in the early 1850s and 1860s. In 1863, Robert proposed
the funding of a photography studio at Sèvres for the
purpose of cataloging the factory output, which was
approved in 1865 after much ministerial resistance.
A member of the Société française de photographie
from 1855 on, Robert was involved in the society’s
activities until the end of his life in 1882. His personal
photographic production is estimated at some 600 paper
negatives, but most of his later work on glass (outside
of the factory catalog) has not survived.
Laurie Dahlberg
See also: Calotype and Talbotype; and Régnault,
Henri-Victor.Biography
Louis Robert was born on 3 October 1810, and was
raised beyond the western edge of Paris in Sèvres,
where his parents were employed by the Manufacture de
porcelaine de Sèvres. Raised to take his place as a fac-
tory artist but trained also in chemistry, he directed the
atelier of painting on glass from 1832 until 1847, when
he was promoted to chef de peinture. He began working
in paper negative photography around 1850 and turned
the camera to portraiture, landscapes, architectural stud-
ies, and still life arrangements. His photographic activity
at Sèvres was encouraged by factory director Victor
Regnault, a fellow amateur photographer who assisted
Robert in establishing a photography studio in the fac-
tory to record Sèvres’ output and museum collection.
Some of Robert’s architectural work was published in
the early 1850s, including thirteen views that comprised
Blanquart-Evrard’s 1853 edition, Souvenirs de Ver-
sailles. A technical expert in all the period’s processes,
he taught photography from 1858 to 1872 at the École
des ponts et chausées and the École du génie maritime.
He was active in the Société française de photographie
from 1855 until his death in 1882.Further Reading
Bajac, Quentin, “La photographie à Sèvres sous le second Em-
pire: du laboratoire au jardin,” La revue du Musée d’Orsay 5
(Autumn 1997): 74–85.
Dahlberg, Laurie, The Bull in the China Shop: Victor Regnault and
the Culture of Photography, 1840–1870 (MS under review).
Jammes, Isabelle, Blanquart-Evrard et les Origines de l’Édition
Photographique Française, Genève-Paris: Librairie Droz,
1980.
Jammes, André and Eugenia Parry Janis, The Art of French Calo-
type, Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1983.
Stourdzé, Sam (ed.), Louis Robert, l’alchimie des images. Paris:
Baudoin Lebon, NBC editions and Musumeci Editore, 1999
(exhibition catalog).ROBERTSON, JAMES (c. 1813–1888)
James Robertson was trained in London under William
Wyon, the Chief Engraver at the Royal Mint. In 1841,