Adolphe Braun

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Adolphe Braun
Adolphe Braun, plant study around 1855

Adolphe Braun (born May 13, 1812 in Besançon , † 1877 in Dornach ) was a French textile designer and photographer .

life and work

Initially, Adolphe Braun was a draftsman and designer of fabric samples in a calico printing plant in Mulhouse ( Alsace ). In 1847 he switched to photography and in 1850 he opened his own studio in Dornach (incorporated into Mulhouse in 1913) and from 1868 also in Paris .

At the world exhibition in Paris in 1855 , he presented a series of floral still lifes that attracted attention and made his name known in the art world. This is now considered his breakthrough in photography.

Braun's main interest from the early 1860s was initially in the production of topographical views of Europe. Later he also turned to the reproduction of works of art such as paintings, drawings, lithographs , etchings and sculptures. With the support of King Ludwig II of Bavaria , more than 30,000 photos of famous paintings were created, with which Adolphe Braun achieved worldwide fame. In order to produce the required high quantities, he primarily used the carbon printing process .

In 1869 Adolphe Braun was invited to photograph the opening of the Suez Canal in Egypt . On this occasion he also produced many of the then very popular views of a clichéd idea of ​​ancient Egypt with palm forests, camels, pyramids or the Sphinx of Giza. Other focal points of his extensive work are landscape photography with large-format panoramic views , often including the Alps, hunting still lifes, animal portraits or depictions of young women in various French costumes.

He received awards and medals at photographic exhibitions. He also had a farm with eighty cows and ten horses.

During the Franco-Prussian War (1870–1871), Adolphe Braun photographed numerous destruction, especially in Paris and Belfort or on bridges. Not only did he use it to document war damage, pictures of ruins were also commercially viable. Adolphe Braun later documented the construction of the Gotthard Railway and the Gotthard summit tunnel , both of which were only completed and put into operation five years after his death.

In 1885 Adolphe Braun started his company "Ad. Braun et Co." declared as the official photographer of the Louvre.

After his death, his work was continued by his son Gaston Braun. The company name changed to "Braun, Clément et Cie" in 1889 and "Braun et Cie" in 1910.

Exhibitions

The Munich City Museum and the Musée Unterlinden Colmar are showing an extensive retrospective in 2017 and 2018, which for the first time presents all of Adolphe Braun's fields of activity on the basis of around 400 original recordings. Catalog: see below.

  • Adolphe Braun:
    Still life of a hunting scene, 1867

  • Adolphe Braun:
    Pont des chemins de fer, Argenteuil, 1871

  • Adolphe Braun:
    Pont de Champigny-sur-Marne, 1871

  • Adolphe Braun:
    Asnières, Chemin de fer, 1871

  • Adolphe Braun:
    Gotthardbahn aerial locomotive (detail).

  • Adolphe Braun:
    Gotthard Railway tunnel entrance in Airolo (detail).

  • Adolphe Braun:
    Gotthard Railway Lower Ticino Bridge with Giornico (detail).

  • Adolphe Braun:
    Gotthard Railway Beam Hole Bridge (detail), ca.1875.

literature

  • Exhibition catalog: Ulrich Pohlmann, Paul Mellenthin (ed.), In collaboration with Franziska Kunze: Adolphe Braun. A European photography company and the visual arts in the 19th century. With texts by Jan von Brevern, Aziza Gril-Mariotte, Christian Kempf, Dorothea Peters, Marie Robert, Bernd Stiegler and the editors. Schirmer / Mosel, Munich 2017. ISBN 978-3-8296-0823-7 .
  • Michel Frizot (ed.): New history of photography . Könemann 2001. ISBN 3-8290-1327-2 .
  • Ute Eskildsen (ed.): The Bisson brothers. The rise and fall of a photography company in the 19th century . Verlag der Kunst 1999. ISBN 90-5705-123-0 .
  • Helmut Gernsheim : History of Photography - The First Hundred Years . Propylaen Verlag, Vienna 1983. ISBN 3-549-05213-8 .
  • NN: Adolphe Braun in Dornach . In Hermann Vogel (ed.): Photographische Mitteilungen , 4th year, Louis Gerschel Verlagbuchhandlung, Berlin 1868, pp. 99 ff. And 145 ff., Online .

Web links

Commons : Adolphe Braun  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ John Hannavy: Encyclopedia of nineteenth-century photography , Vol 1, p 205, Routledge, New York, London., 2008.
  2. ↑ Adolphe Braun. A European photography company and the visual arts in the 19th century. (No longer available online.) Munich City Museum, archived from the original on November 7, 2017 ; accessed on November 1, 2017 (German). Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.muenchner-stadtmuseum.de
  3. ↑ Adolphe Braun. A European photography company and the visual arts in the 19th century. (No longer available online.) Munich City Museum, archived from the original on November 7, 2017 ; accessed on November 1, 2017 (German). Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.muenchner-stadtmuseum.de
  4. ↑ No way too far in FAZ of November 16, 2017, page R6
  5. ↑ a b c d Adolphe Braun: Photographic views of the Gotthard Railway , Dornach in Alsace, approx. 1875.
personal data
SURNAME Braun, Adolphe
BRIEF DESCRIPTION French textile designer and photographer
DATE OF BIRTH May 13, 1812
PLACE OF BIRTH Besançon , France
DATE OF DEATH 1877
Place of death Dornach