Jacob Wothly

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Jacob Wothly

Jacob Wothly (actually Jacob Woodtlj; born July 2, 1823 in Oftringen , † June 27, 1873 in Bözingen , Switzerland ) was a German photographer . Wothly is considered a pioneer in photography.

Life

Joseph La Ruelle

Jacob Woodtlj was the seventh child of Rudolf Jakob Woodtlj (April 17, 1772– October 24, 1843) vom Schneggenberg and Elisabeth, geb. Bär (September 12, 1783 Aarburg - August 21 / April 1846 Biel ). He later changed his last name to "Wothly". As a 17 year old he was a drawing student at the Munich Art Academy . Wothly came to Aachen as an assistant to a bear guide. Dancing bears and paper cuttings were contemporary fairground attractions. In the fall of 1849, the 27-year-old Wothly worked as a silhouetteur in the center of Aachen at the address Friedrich-Wilhelm-Graben 583. In the Aachener Zeitung he advertised with the words: “Sitting takes a maximum of 5 minutes, for the most perfect similarity and the finest execution is guaranteed. Silhouettes can be made by night as well as by day. You can find me from 9 in the morning until 8 in the evening. "

One month before he came to Aachen, Jacob Wothly had married Mathilde Juliane Johanna Linden, daughter of the waiter Friedrich Wilhelm Linden from Düsseldorf, on September 6, 1849 in Düsseldorf-Hamm . It can be assumed that Jacob Wothly stayed in Düsseldorf for a while before his 24-year phase of life in Aachen. From December 10, 1849, he made portraits in oil and pastel in a main shopping street in Aachen, Großkölnstrasse 964. From 1850 he made daguerreotypes . His first traditional recording is the illustration by Joseph La Ruelle . In 1855 he ran his studio near the theater and telegraph office, in 1858 in Komphausbadstrasse, before settling at Büchel 45 by 1861 at the latest. According to Wothly, the Aachen photographer August Kampf used the rooms in Komphausbadstrasse . After Wothly had photographed Prince George of Prussia , he was granted the right in 1861 to use the designation " Hof-Photographer ".

The businessman Wothly sold his patents and traded in his own machines. In 1867 he went on a trip to Italy. Shortly before his death, Wothly lost almost all of his fortune due to financial difficulties at the banking house Robert Suermondt & Cie as a result of the founder crash . Jacob Wothly died on June 27, 1873 in Bözingen near Biel on a trip through Switzerland.

plant

Jacob Wothly made portrait and architecture photographs. He was also active as a silhouetteur, painter, author, developer of photo emulsions and ingredients, equipment and manufacturer of his own lenses . Wothly was self-taught in chemistry and physics .

studio

Back of a Carte de Visite from Jacob Wothly's studio, around 1865

Wothly has registered his company in the commercial register under the name Jacob Wothly . His residential and studio building at Auf dem Büchel 45 was a simple three-window house in Aachen . It had a shop on the ground floor with "storage of cases, medallions, frames and apparatus for photography, pictures based on paintings and drawings are also delivered in any scale."

On September 30, 1864, he bought the Tivoli estate with 10.5 acres of land. The park of the estate was reminiscent of "the gardens of the Italian town of Tivoli (Latium) ". He equipped it with a glass grinding shop and manufactured lenses in it. From 1865 to 1870 he did not have a studio “to devote himself mainly to photographic experiments.” His darkroom “received its light through yellow glass, where he mixed the ingredients, so-called resin collodion and the sensitizing liquer (...) and after a few minutes a series of half sheets were perfectly covered with incredible speed and hung up to dry. "

In 1872 Wothly worked again in his studio on the Büchel and lived privately in the Tivoli in front of the Sandkaultor.

Wothlytypia

The Wothlytypie , created in 1860, was a result of Jacob Wothly's efforts to improve photographic process engineering, which he had undertaken from 1857 at the latest. It is a process for producing positive images using a uranium salt, the radioactive uranyl nitrate as a light-sensitive material and a collodion- coated paper as a support.

The Wothltypie was assessed differently in the professional world and ultimately could not prevail over the long term. No conclusive evidence could be provided about the price it was said to be inexpensive in comparison to the usual chlorine silver process.

Wothly had the preparations for this process named after him using uranium salts as light-sensitive material manufactured in "the laboratory of the pharmacist Ernst Christian Friedrich Schering in Berlin". Wothly had the process patented in England in 1864 and in Paris on August 15, 1865 . The licensing of this Wothlytypie process for France and Belgium was taken over by the Société française de Wothlytypie, founded by Emmanuel Mangel du Mesnil in 1865 .

Heliostat (solar camera)

Solar camera from Jacob Wothly

Jacob Wothly invented a solar camera around 1860 . With this camera, which had the construction principle of a heliostat , Wothly was able to produce photographs up to 2 × 1.5 m in size. He first presented the process to the French Academy of Sciences. The apparatus he constructed was “a magnifier for sunlight with self-made lenses of long focal length. Your “condenser lens has a diameter of 1 m and a focal length of 2 m.” In 1890 Josef Maria Eder (1855–1944, Austrian photochemist) acquired a “Wothly built” solar camera. He placed it on the flat "roof of the graphic teaching and research institute in Vienna." Eder was considered to be the "ideal founder of the 'kk teaching and research institute for photography and reproduction processes'." He headed this facility, which was founded in 1888, for over 30 years. In 1932, Eder wrote that in 1860 Wothly practically modified the enlarger constructed in 1857 by Lieutenant Colonel Joseph Janvier Woodward (1833–1884) and “presented his almost life-size portraits at the meeting of the French Academy of Sciences on October 8, 1860 ... Disdéri in Paris acquired this procedure in the same year with the right to carry it out in France for 20,000 francs. This function of the camera consisted in separating the reflector from the apparatus, thereby avoiding vibrations from the rotation of the mirror during the exposure. ... The dimensions of the Wothly solar camera were very large. ... The enormous heat of the condensed rays of the sun made cooling with plane-parallel water tubs necessary. ”Court photographer Joseph Albert also equipped his huge studio house with a solar camera built according to Wothly's system. With his self-constructed solar device, Wothly achieved award medals for enlargements at several exhibitions.

Background copying machine

Background copying machine

In March 1864, Wothly presented his background copier in the Photographische monthly magazine. As an argument in favor of his tool, he explained that the previously used glass vignettes were expensive and fragile. Burning in the outline colors reduced the transparency of the center. Another method was a kind of passe-partout to achieve a tinted background for copies. The cardboard passe-partout had to be held by an assistant. Therefore, only one image was obtained per copy operation. Wothly replaced the assistant with a machine. From then on, any number of copies with variable adjustment of the cardboard cover was possible. The rotation of the table improved the incidence of light, according to Wothly. He had the background copying machine built by Wothly in the machine factory of Johann de Houben on the Karlsgraben in Aachen.

student

In 1853 the Bern photographer Carl Durheim was one of his students. Presumably some Aachen photographers were apprenticed to Jacob Wothly. Possibly also Carl and Egidius Billotte, the sons of the painter Heinrich Franz Carl Billotte .

successor

From 1874 his son, photographer Albert Wothly (Albert Rudolph, born Nov. 18, 1852 in Aachen, died August 16, 1879) took his place. It operated as a registered company in the Jacob Wothly (Albert) commercial register , had the studio on Büchel 45 in 1874 and on Gut Tivoli in 1875 . His mother lived on Sandkaulsteinweg 196, today's Krefelder Straße ( B57 ), by 1883 at the latest ; the ( Tivoli was Sandkaulsteinweg 205). Widow Mathilde Wothly died 20 years after her son at the age of 78 on July 10, 1899 in Aachen's Luisenhospital .

From 1871 the victorious campaign of amateur photography began with the dry plate . Up until now, Aachen was known as the “City of Photography” thanks to Jacob Wothly.

reception

The characteristic personality of Jacob Wothly is said to have taken Friedrich Wilhelm Hackländer as a model for the figure of the photographer Wilbert in his sea novel "Sturmvogel". This is also said of the court photographer Joseph Albert (1825–1886). Wilbert appears in Chapter 16: Travel Impressions and Chapter 17: With the Sun Children . Born in Burtscheider and living on Lake Starnberg , Hackländer was inspired by J. Wothly and J. Albert. The studio is reminiscent of Albert. The name Wilbert / Wilbertypie sounds like Wothly / Wothlytypie. The addition heliotype indicates an albertotype. The reference to the use of the sun on Wothly's solar camera. The peculiarity of the novel photographer to write his clients' orders on his cuff sleeves, which his secretary arranges every evening, suggests Wothly. The title of the novel refers to the sailing ship Dagoberts Baron von Elmbach. He lives in the country by a lake. The area is the high mountains. In the course of researching a missing lady named Margarethe, Baron von Elmbach visits Wilbert's studio in the city. He is accompanied by Alexander Dellwing, a young talented painter. Dellwing was awarded a medal at the last exhibition. The baron patronizes the young artist. Elmbach is friends with Wilbert and hopes “from his friends and colleagues, whom he has in all parts of Europe, to provide photographic portraits of women for viewing” in order to find what they are looking for.

Awards

  • 1857 Medal of the “Society for the Promotion of Industrial Arts in Belgium”, Brussels
  • between 1858 and 1861 royal Prussian court photographer
  • 1862 World Exhibition in London Medal: "HONORIS CAUSA"
  • 1863 Certificate of honorary member and master in Frankfurt am Main
  • 1865 Award medal at the exhibition in Berlin for his "first application of the uranium collodion in the positive process."
  • In December 1865 he was presented with the medal for commercial achievements "in recognition of his meritorious achievements in the field of photography" by the Minister for Trade, Industry and Public Works, Heinrich Friedrich von Itzenplitz . This award was donated by King Friedrich Wilhelm IV on October 22, 1849.

Works

1. Photographs

  • Eight various portraits in cabinet format 1860 ?, 1864/65; Aachen: Elisenbrunnen. Town hall , TH construction start u. Templerbend station , cabinet format 1865; Reproduction of an engraving, 1864 or earlier. Wothlytypia (uranium nickel albumin paper / albumin paper ) from the Albertina (Vienna) .
  • Portrait of a stranger , Biel / Bienne Art Collection, around 1866.
  • Child portrait Maria Lambertz , daughter of Henry Joseph Napoléon Lambertz , 1866, RMS.
  • Laying of the foundation stone of the TH Aachen , Berlin Palace Library . Lost.
  • Portrait of Heinrich Croon (megalo phototype, approx. 40 cm, in the original Biedermeier frame); Photocopy: three people recording. Nellessen? (Lohmeyer, Franz); Copies from the laying of the foundation stone in 1865 at the Technical University Originals in the palace library in Berlin Copy No. 357–60; Aachen Carte de Visite: Frankenberg Castle , Elisenbrunnen , City Hall , Grass House , Aachen City Archives .

2. Publications

  • 1855: "Photography on silk, leather and oilcloth."
  • After 1855: "Photography on paper."
  • On May 2, 1865: "A new uranium-platinum-collodion process for positive paper images" by J. Wothly
  • 1865 J. Wothly, Lack du Mesnil: “WOTHLYTYPIE. Application de nouveaux procédes photographiques. "

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ (go to February 5, 1803) family register. P. 312. Aarburg municipality. Marital district. Frdl.Ausk.v. Ms. Corinne Pippi Humm, Head of Civil Register.
  2. ↑ according to own information. Oftringen. P. 1/177. Ann .: As a guest student. He is not listed in the student lists. Matriculation books of the Art Academy Munich. 1808-1920.
  3. ^ Prof. E. Hornig, Vienna, lecture on Wothly, 1858. Oftringen. P. 7.
  4. ^ Advertisements in the Aachener Zeitung: "Silhouetten- oder Schattenbilder". October 12, 1849; 14 .; 16 .; 18 .; 21 .; October 26; November 1, 1849. Advertisement in Echo der Gegenwart November 10, 1849. Ms. Auk.v. Vreni Hofer, Oftringen municipal archive, Ruedi Schlosser: “From the bear guide to the court photographer.” (RS). P. 5f. Franz Lohmeyer.
  5. ↑ * 1821 Düsseldorf. Aarburg family register. P. 354
  6. ↑ Oil portraits for 2 Lousid'or and in pastel for the price of 1. Oftringen. P. 7. Echo of the present. December 10, 1849. RS. P. 5f. (Franz Lohmeyer).
  7. ↑ Oftringen. P. 1/177.
  8. ↑ Aachen address book.
  9. ↑ a b Oftringen. P. 3/179.
  10. ↑ Ludwina Forst, Béatrice Austria & Dieter Detiège: Business Times. Thouet, Aachen 2011, ISBN 978-3-930594-37-5 , p. 75
  11. ↑ Ingredients
  12. ↑ Reverse print of a Wothlytypie from the Aachen City Archives .
  13. ↑ Lohmeyer. P. 83. Good Tivoli
  14. ↑ Travel records by photographer Professor Dr. Hermann Wilhelm Vogel on the visit to Wothly's studio at the beginning of 1865. “Photographic archive”. ed. by Dr. Paul E. Liesegang and other scholars and professionals. 7th year - Nro. 99. Berlin. Theobald greaves. Amsterdam, Brussels, London, Madrid, Milan, Naples, New York, Paris, Petersburg, Vienna. First February issue 1866, p. 249ff. (Liesegang).
  15. ↑ Explanations about the process in: Paul E. Liesegang, J. Schnauss (Ed.): Reports on the progress of photography. Fifth volume, born in 1864 . Theobald Grieben, Berlin 1864, p. 125 ff. [1]
  16. ↑ Wolfgang Baier: Source representations for the history of photography . 2nd edition, Schirmer / Mosel, Munich 1980, ISBN 3-921375-60-6 , p. 212 f.
  17. ↑ The former main laboratory has functioned as a museum since 1986: The Scheringianum ( Memento of the original from April 14, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been 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.museumsportal-berlin.de
  18. ↑ Wolfgang Baier: Source representations for the history of photography . 2nd edition, Schirmer / Mosel, Munich 1980, ISBN 3-921375-60-6 , p. 212
  19. ^ Franz Lohmeyer: "Gut Tivoli" in "Schützenbruderschaft Soers". Festschrift 1995. Burg, Stolberg. 1995, p. 83.
  20. ^ Wothly's natural-size photographic portraits. In: Polytechnisches Journal . 158, 1860, Miszelle 10, pp. 237-238.
  21. ↑ Oftringen. Pp. 1/177, 8.Fig. S. RS monthly booklet.
  22. ↑ RS. Monthly books. P. 4.
  23. ↑ JJ Woodwards solar camera see fig. in: JM Eder: History of Photography 4th edition. 1932. (Eder), Figs. 155, 156 (“Using the solar camera”), pp. 548f. Miss Auk.v. Hans Rudolf Gabathuler, Photobibliothek.ch, Diessenhofen. saEder, p. 549 Note 1: JJ Woodward: “Heliostat for Photomicrographie.” 1896. Woodward “had the device patented in England (on September 22, 1857, No. 2459) and brought the device to Paris and London in 1859 to the knowledge of the specialist community. The installation of his apparatus (Fig. 155) was the starting point for the construction of all later solar cameras. ”Eder, p. 549.
  24. ^ French Academy of Sciences
  25. ↑ Eder, pp. 549/550, Fig. 157.
  26. ↑ PC. Pp. 95/86. Detailed Description of Albert's studio in Photographische Correspondenz, 1865, pp. 85–89. and The Atelier of the k. Bavarian court - photographer Joseph Albert in Munich . Albert had "(has) separated his business into two strictly separate departments, one for the portrait subject, the other for reproduction or art purposes."
  27. ↑ PC. P. 293/256. RS. P. 18. s. Fig. 24, p. 4.
  28. ↑ Fr. Bollmann's: Photographic monthly books. Continued by K. de Roth. N ° March 22, 1864. RS. P. 2f.
  29. ↑ Fig. S. ibid. p. 3.
  30. ↑ Carl Durheim
  31. ^ Aarburg family register.
  32. ↑ Aachen address book. 1874; 1875; 1883; 87; 89. The news of her death appears Wed., d.12. July 1899, Echo der Gegenwart, no.499, third sheet. Franz Lohmeyer: "Gut Tivoli" in "Schützenbruderschaft Soers". Festschrift 1995. Burg, Stolberg. 1995, pp. 89, 91.
  33. ↑ Bodo von Koppen: "David Hansemann in the picture." In: ZAGV, 70, 1958, pp. 193-201.
  34. ↑ FW Hackländer: "The Storm Bird" in "Ueber Land und Meer. Allgemeine Illustrierte Zeitung “ed. FW Hackländer. Volume 26, year 13. Stuttgart, 1871. Published every Sunday. P. 3, No. 29.
  35. ↑ Oftringen. P. 1/177. s. a. Note 412.
  36. ↑ in: Minutes of the plenary meeting of the photographic society in Vienna.

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Wothly, Jacob
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Woodtlj, Jacob
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German photographer
DATE OF BIRTH July 2, 1823
PLACE OF BIRTH Oftringen
DATE OF DEATH June 27, 1873
Place of death Bozingen