414
it would seem, the father Devéria. Another indication of
the interest he brought to the technique is the existence
of a photographic album of his family (Getty collections)
containing various portraits made between 1853 and
1857 and some of which, when touched-up, could be
used as models for his lithographs. However, it remains
diffi cult to determine with certainty their author: Devéria
father or son? No print to date that was modifi ed has
been attributed to him with certainty. His involvement
was of short duration because he died on December 23,
1857, only a few months after being named curator of
the cabinet of the Prints of the national Library.
Better identifi ed is the photographic work of his son
Théodule, born in Paris on July 1, 1831. His work was
held high regard in the artistic medium of Bohemian
romantic upon which his father focused. But according
to his son and fi rst biographer, Gabriel Devéria, the deci-
sive meeting for his vocation was with the Egyptologist
Emile Prisse d’Avennes in 1843. A visit to the museum
of Leyde in 1846 confi rmed this and he expressed a new
taste for epigraphy. He studied Eastern coptic languages
with the architect Charles Lenormand, and Arabic with
the Eastern languages while following the teaching of
Quatremère at the College of France.
In 1851, he entered the Cabinet of the Prints where his
father was then the preserving assistant. It was perhaps
his father or of one of his friends such as Louis Robert
that, in those years, introduced him to photography.
In 1854, with his fi rst darkroom, he photographed the
Scribe of the Louvre museum. Another amateur pho-
tographer evolving during this period was the amateur
archaeologist John B Greene: in 1855 Théodule created
lithographs based on negatives brought back from Egypt
for a publication of the printer Firmin-Didot, Fouilles
exécutées à Thèbes dans l’année 1855.
This same year, on recommendation of the Egyp-
tologist the Viscount of Rougé, Devéria entered the
Department of Egyptian antiquities of the Louvre, with
the mission of helping to catalogue the thousands of
excavated objects sent from Egypt by Auguste Mariette,
director of the department who worked on antiquities in
Egypt and discovered in 1850 Sérapéum de Memphis.
Devéria’s talents as lithographer and his meticulous-
ness were then important contributions. In 1856, he
illustrated Mariette’s work Choix de monuments et de
dessins découverts ou exécutés pendant le déblaiement
du Sérapéum de Memphis.
In December 1858, Mariette called him to Egypt
to assist in reading inscriptions. It was the fi rst of four
voyages during which Devéria, combining drawings,
stampings and photographs, endeavored to document
various archeological sights as precisely as possible.
This fi rst trip led him to Cairo and its surroundings
(Saqqarah, Gizeh, Memphis, Louxor, Karnak, Medinet-
Abou). The same concern with precision is found in
almost the whole of the photographic works then carried
out, by having only used the technique of the calotype:
inscriptions, objects of excavation, general sights of
archeological sites, and, more rarely, landscapes and
portraits. His approach to the subject was usually direct,
and his images (never more than 20cm × 30cm) have
a marked documentary style. The group of images,
however, betray his limited technical ability (spots on
the negatives, images sometimes fuzzy, prints faded and
prematurely yellowed due to inadequate washing.
After becoming preserving assistant of the depart-
ment of Egyptology of the Louvre in 1860, he returned
to Egypt in 1861–62, on this occasion traveling up the
Nile as far as the First Cataract (Philae) then into Nubie
as far as Ibsamboul. With his return he assisted Mariette
in the development of the publication of the fi rst series
of descriptions of excavations in Egypt, 1850–54.
At the beginning of 1865, he completed a third voy-
age in Egypt, in the company of Henri Péreire, Surel,
and of the orientalist Arthur Rhoné, during which he
also took photographs. This voyage was preserved in
an album of 77 plates. In contrast with the photographs
taken at the time of the fi rst two voyages, the work is
more alive and convivial, being interested more in the
protagonists and landscapes than with the sites them-
selves. In the autumn of 1865 until 1866, he undertook
a fourth and last voyage in Egypt with Mariette.
Knighted of the Legion of Honour in 1868, he died
in Paris on January 31, 1871, without having seen
published the great work of Mariette Bey, to which he
had collaborated so much. With his death, a large por-
tion of his papers, handwritten notes, and photographs
were sold by his widow to the Louvre. In 1986, the
photographs (more than 300 prints and negatives) were
assigned to the Musee d’Orsay. Photographs taken at
the time of his fi rst voyage (prints and negatives) are
also found in the collections of the National Library. It
should be noted that although the majority of known
images were taken in Egypt, there are also images of
Normandy taken around 1859 (negatives at the Musée
d’Orsay).
Quentin BajacFurther Reading
Maximilien Gauthier, Achilles and Eugene Devéria, Floury,
1925.
Andre Jammes and Eugenia Parry-Janis, The Art of French Calo-
type, Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1983.
Gaston Maspéro (ed.), “Théodule Devéria, Memories and frag-
ments,” Egyptological Library, volume 1, vol. IV, Paris:
Ernest Leroux, 1896.
Copious Serge (ed.), Théodule Devéria, Voyages on the Nile,
1858–1865, Paris: Copious Serge Bookshop, 1999.