Louis-Rémy Robert 1811-1882

Collection of Louis-Rémy Robert

By descent to a member of the Robert family

Lunn Ltd., New York/Paris

Acquired by Margaret W. Weston from the above

The photograph offered here is very likely a study of the porcelain produced at the Manufacture de Sèvres.  For most of his professional career, Louis-Rémy Robert served as chief overseer of the painters and gilders there.  Robert, along with his close friend and colleague Victor Regnault, began exploring photography and the waxed-paper-negative process in 1848, when the French Revolution caused the temporary closure of the factory.  Robert’s first experiments with the new medium were primarily portrait studies, but he quickly shifted to still life and the documentation of the objects produced in the factories of Sèvres. 

Since its inception in 1740, the mission of Manufacture Nationale de Sèvres has been to produce ceramic objects of art using traditional methods.  Robert took advantage of his surroundings and produced large numbers of negatives of the highly stylized and artistic porcelain objects that were created around him.  During his time at the factory, a number of new methods of casting and glazing porcelain were discovered and adapted, including relief molding and elaborate painting techniques.  The image offered here is a striking example of both the exquisite detail obtained by the workers at Sèvres and of Robert’s mastery of the waxed-paper negative.