139
ing establishment to operate in Belgium was run by
Gilbert Radoux (1820–?), a French “proscrit” [political
refugee]. A total of fi ve patent transfers were recorded
in the 1860s, fi ve in the 1870s, dropping to two in the
1880s before jumping to twenty-two in the fi nal decade
of the century.
Successive political upheavals in France enriched the
photographic life of the Belgian capital, where refugees
tended to congregate. Both Radoux and his successor
Charles Neyt (1833–1908) kept up contacts with the
exiles from the régime of Napoleon III, cultivating the
company of artists and writers who passed through Brus-
sels, such as Gustave Courbet, Victor Hugo, and Charles
Baudelaire, all of whom had their portraits taken during
their stay. Another frequent visitor to Belgium was Na-
dar, whose wide circle of friends included Louis Ghé-
mar, his Brussels counterpart as caricaturist, portraitist,
and showman. Following the events of the Commune,
Gaudenz Marconi, photographer of “académies pour
artistes” [nude studies for artists], relocated to Brussels
in 1872, where he led a more obscure life. Diffusion of
knowledge and technical know-how in the domain was
promoted by the handbooks, written in Belgium but
published in France, by the prolifi c researcher Désiré
van Monckhoven.
The rise in the number of patents and of transfer
rights heralds the onset of phase four of the socialisation
process, as society began to accustom itself to the new
technology. In Belgium, this sustained take-off ran for
some 30 years from 1860. There is enough quantitative
as well as qualitative data to confi rm the starting date.
Quantitatively, we have the census returns: from an
estimated 38 persons who exercised the profession of
photographer in 1856, the number had risen in 1866 to
256—in other words, a jump of 670 percent. Qualita-
tively, we have the testimony of contemporary observers,
such as this journalist reporting on the construction of a
new portrait studio in Brussels in 1864: “Ten years ago,
photography was scarcely known here, only Daguerre’s
system was in vogue and astonished many people. Today
portraits on metal plates are quite out of fashion; men
of progress have put their minds to it and, aided by
chemistry, have managed to reproduce on paper portraits
which can be preserved indefi nitely. Progress has notBELGIUM
Laurent, Juan and José Martinez Sánchez.
Zaragoza à Pamplona y Barcelona—Puente de
Zuera.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Purchase,
The Horace W. Goldsmith Foundation Gift,
by exchange, 1999 (1999.138) Image © The
Metropolitan Museum of Art.