Pierre Dubreuil 1872-1944

The photographer to Dr. Max Thorek

Gift of Dr. Max Thorek, December 1935

Museum of Science and Industry, Chicago, Imagination to Image, April - September 1999; and traveling thereafter to The Haggerty Museum of Art, Marquette University, Milwaukee, September - December  2000;  and The Montclair, New Jersey, Art Museum, January - April 2001

Another print of this image:

Tom Jacobson, Pierre Dubreuil, Photographs 1896 – 1935 (San Diego, 1987, in conjunction with the exhibition at the Musée d’Art Moderne, Centre Georges Pompidou), pl. 26

It is believed that the photograph offered here is one of only two known prints of The First Round.   The other, also an oil print, was sold at Christie’s New York on 8 April 1998 (Sale 8884, Lot 250). 

Pierre Dubreuil was one of the most inventive photographers of his day: a technical master of the medium, and brilliant aesthetic innovator.  Like most of his photographic colleagues, Dubreuil had experimented with the full range of processes then available, including platinum, carbon, and gum bichromate.  In 1904, he discovered the Rawlins oil process, which allowed him a great deal of control over the final appearance of his photographs; the resulting prints had the added benefit of being permanent.  Dubreuil quickly mastered the intricacies of this difficult process, and used it throughout his career.

Dubreuil’s complete mastery of his chosen medium allowed his imagination free reign.  In a career typified by novel imagery, The First Round is one of Dubreuil’s most surprising images.  The unlikely juxtaposition of a pair of boxing gloves with the delicate, youthful, and almost feminine face of the would-be pugilist is an arresting one.  The cleverly-balanced composition is anchored by the subject’s piercing gaze. 

The only other known print of The First Round was exhibited in the retrospective of Dubreuil’s work at the Royal Photographic Society, London, in 1935, as well as in the two major modern Dubreuil exhibitions: Pierre Dubreuil, Photographs 1896 – 1935 at the Musee d'Art Moderne, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, in 1987; and Pierre Dubreuil Rediscovered, at The Museum of Photographic Arts, San Diego, in 1988, and traveling to Alliance Française, New York, and The Detroit Institute of Arts, in 1989-90.

While Dubreuil’s work was exhibited widely during his lifetime, there are exceedingly few surviving examples of his work.  On the eve of the second World War, experiencing financial difficulties and concerned for the safety of his life’s work, Dubreuil sold his negatives and many of his prints to the Gevaert photographic company in Belgium. The Gevaert factory was subsequently bombed during the war, and Dubreuil’s work was completely destroyed.