The International Monthly, Volume 4, No. 2, September, 1851Various
History
The International Monthly, Volume 4, No. 2, September, 1851
Various
Art, Modern -- 19th century -- Periodicals; Literature, Modern -- 19th century -- Periodicals; Science -- History -- Periodicals
Louis Jacques Maude Daguerre, whose name is for ever associated with
the photographic process, of which he was the discoverer, died on the
tenth of July, in Paris, in the sixty-second year of his age. He was a
man of extreme modesty and great personal worth, and was devoted to
art. He was favorably known to the world before the announcement of
his discovery of the Daguerreotype. His attempts to improve panoramic
painting, and the production of dioramic effects, were crowned with
the most eminent success. Among his pictures, which attracted much
attention at the time of their exhibition were, The Midnight Mass,
Land-slip in the Valley of Goldau, The Temple of Solomon, and The
Cathedral of Sainte Marie de Montreal. In these the alternate effects
of night and day, and storm and sunshine, were beautifully produced.
To these effects of light were added others, from the decomposition of
form, by means of which, for example, in The Midnight Mass, figures
appeared where the spectators had just beheld seats, altars, &c., and
again, as in The Valley of Goldau, in which rocks tumbling from the
mountains replaced the prospect of a smiling valley. The methods
adopted in these pictures were published at the same time with the
process of the Daguerreotype, by order of the French Government, who
awarded an annual pension of ten thousand francs to Daguerre and M.
Niepce, jr., whose father had contributed towards the discovery of the
Daguerreotype. Daguerre was led to experiments on chemical changes by
solar radiations, with the hope of being able to apply the phenomena
to the production of effects in his dioramic paintings. As the
question of the part taken by him in the process to which he has given
his name, has been discussed sometimes to his disadvantage, it appears
important that his position should be correctly determined. In 1802,
Wedgwood, of Etruria, the celebrated potter, made the first recorded
experiments in photography; and these, with some additional ones by
Sir Humphrey Davy, were published in the journals of the royal
institution. In 1814, Mr. Joseph Nicephore Niepce was engaged in
experiments to determine the possibility of fixing the images obtained
in the camera obscura; but there does not appear any evidence of
publication of any kind previously to 1827, when Niepce was in
England. He there wrote several letters to Mr. Bauer, the microscopic
observer, which are preserved and printed in Hunt's _Researches on
Light_. He also sent specimens of results obtained to the Royal
Society, and furnished some to the cabinets of the curious, a few of
which are yet in existence. These were pictures on metallic plates
covered with a fine film of resin. In 1824 Daguerre commenced his
researches, starting at that point at which Wedgwood left the process.
He soon abandoned the employment of the nitrate and chloride of
silver, and proceeded with his inquiry, using plates of metal and
glass to receive his sensitive coatings. In 1829 M. Vincent Chevalier
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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