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Pierre Dubreuil
Description
- Pierre Dubreuil
- NOTRE DAME DE PARIS
- Oil print
Exhibited
San Diego, The Museum of Photographic Arts, Pierre Dubreuil Rediscovered, 1988, and traveling thereafter to:
New York, Alliance Française, 1989
The Detroit Institute of the Arts, 1990
Literature
Pierre Dubreuil, 'The Salon of the Photo-Club de Paris,' The Amateur Photographer & Photographic News, May 1909, Vol. XLIX, No. 1286, p. 498
Cyrille Ménard, 'Les Mâitres de la Photographie,' Photo Magazine, 1912, No. 18, p. 157
Condition
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.
Catalogue Note
It is believed that the photograph offered here is the only surviving oil print of this image. A print sent in 1912 to Stieglitz for his personal collection was subsequently lost and has not resurfaced. The only other known example of this image is a gelatin silver print made in the 1930s. Although Dubreuil exhibited widely during his lifetime, there are few of his photographs extant. Concerned for the safety of his life’s work, and experiencing financial difficulties on the eve of the second World War, Dubreuil sold his negatives and many of his prints to the Gevaert photographic company in Belgium. When the factory was bombed during the war, most of Dubreuil’s oeuvre was destroyed.
In Notre Dame de Paris, Dubreuil has seamlessly fused two negatives – the chestnut tree leaves in the foreground and Notre Dame along the banks of the Seine in the background – to create a sense of three-dimensional space. With its lush blacks, bright highlights, and impressive range of charcoal-like gray tones, this print of Notre Dame de Paris demonstrates Dubreuil’s technical mastery of his medium.
Dubreuil authority Tom Jacobson, from whose collection this photograph comes, recovered the work of this pioneering photographer in the 1980s. Jacobson brought this long-forgotten work to public attention through the international exhibition, Pierre Dubreuil, Photographs 1896-1935, and its accompanying catalogue, which remains the definitive text on Dubreuil. Of Notre Dame de Paris, Jacobson notes that the outline of the chestnut leaves in the image echoes the shape of the individual panes of Notre Dame’s South Rose Window.