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used photographs in his painting process. Although no
absolute one-to-one correspondence can be proven, the
quality of Vallou’s models is very close to Courbet’s
concept of the nude. J. Vallou de Villeneuve in his pho-
tographs organized zones of light and shade and worked
in small formats intended for albums or “intimate”
portfolios. His personages are without ornamentation
in simple decors. His nudes are improved by studied
lighting. Some accessories were placed within view to
add simple graphics.
In his nude studies intended for artists, he was not
content with habitual poses, but instead invented new
ideas of attitudes.
From 1853 to 1854, he was a founding member of
the Société française de photographie (S.F.P.) and in
1855 he gave his prints to this society.
On 4 May 1866, he died in Paris.
Johan Swinnen
Biography
French lithographer, photographer and painter. Between
1851 and 1855 Julien Vallou de Villeneuve, a student of
Millet and a lithographer of scenes of daily life, costume,
and erotica, made a series of small-scale photographs
of female nudes that he marketed as models for artists;
evidence suggests that they were used as such by Gus-
tave Courbet, among others.
See also: France; Lithography; Erotic Photography;
Nudes; Portraiture; Société héliographique; Painters
and Photography; Courbet, Gustave; Delacroix,
Ferdinand Victor Eugène; Durieu, Jean-Louis-Marie-
Eugène; and Société française de photographie.
Further Reading
Font-Reaulx, Dominique de, L’art de nu au XIXième siècle: le
photographe et modèle, Hazan: Bibliothèque Nationale de
France, 1997.
Frizot, Michel (ed.), Nouvelle Histoire de la Photographie, Paris:
Bordas, 1994.
Gernsheim, Helmut and Alison, The origins of photography,
London: Thames and Hudson, 1982.
Heilbrun, Françoise (ed.), L’invention d’un regard (1839–1918),
Paris: Musée d’Orsay/Bibliothèque nationale, 1989.
Jay, Paul (ed.), Les calotypes du fonds d’Iray, Chalon-Sur-Saône:
Musée Nicéphore Niépce, 1983.
Lemagny Jean-Claude and Sayag, Alain, L’invention d’un art,
Paris: Centre Georges Pompidou, 1989.
Lewinski, Jorge, A history of nude photography, the naked and
the nude, London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1987.
Strauss, Victor, The lithographers manuel, vol. I & II, New York:
Waltwim Publishing Company, 1958.
Turner, Jane (ed.), Dictionary of Art, vol. 8, London: Macmil-
lan, 1996.
Witkin, Lee D. (ed.), The photograph collector’s guide, London:
Secker & Warburg, 1979.
VAN KINSBERGEN, ISIDORE
(1821–1905)
Dutch-Belgian photographer and theatre maker in
the Dutch East Indies
When Isidore van Kinsbergen arrived in Batavia in the
Dutch East Indies (now Jakarta in Indonesia) on 26
August 1851, he described himself as an artist, litho-
grapher, set painter and opera singer. Such a versatile
background meant a great advantage in a small colonial
town like Batavia where artists needed several skills in
order to survive. Van Kinsbergen’s leading role in the
Théâtre Français de Batavia gained him support from the
upper social classes of colonial society and through this
interesting photographic assignments from the colonial
government. “A capable and experienced photographer”
was the opinion of the Amsterdam photographic pioneer
Eduard Isaac Asser.
It is not known where and from whom Van Kinsber-
gen learned to photograph. However his background as
a lithographer and his entrepreneurial spirit no doubt
whetted his interest in the medium. His fi rst photo-
graphic activities in Batavia date from 1855 when he
briefl y associated with the French photographer Antoine
François Lecouteux.
Via his contacts in Batavia’s artistic and scientifi c
circles, it is certain that Van Kinsbergen was familiar
with what was being published in Europe in the fi eld of
illustration. However, it is doubtful whether he saw there
much photography of any kind of quality. In view of his
links to the Parisian art world, it is well possible that
he became acquainted with photography in the French
capital when he resided there for a few months in 1854.
Van Kinsbergen’s sense of photographic monumentality
evokes the work of his French contemporaries Edouard-
Denis Baldus and Louis-Auguste and Auguste-Rosalie
Bisson.
In 1844, the Dutch Ministry of Colonies, being far
ahead of its time, commissioned the German photo-
grapher Adolph Schaefer to make daguerreotypes of
Javanese antiquities including the Borobudur. When
nearly twenty years later Van Kinsbergen picked up
the thread where Schaefer left off, photography was
already being used elsewhere for documenting ancient
treasures and archaeological fi ndings (Egypt, India
etc.). He had come to the attention of the Dutch colonial
government in September 1862 with photographs taken
during a journey with the Governor-General on Java.
These convinced the colonial government of his ability
to make an extensive photographic survey of Javanese
antiquities. Meanwhile the government was also aware
of the photographs he had made of famous monuments
and temples in Bangkok in Siam (Thailand), where
he had been assigned as photographer to a diplomatic
mission earlier that year.