Daguerre, Louis Jacques Mandé | Original drawings by the inventor of photography

Daguerre, Louis Jacques Mandé

A group of ink and wash drawings, signed by Daguerre. [Paris], 1822

Single leaf (508 x 355.5 mm). Recto with four drawings of Jewish subjects, each captioned, verso with twenty drawings of musical instruments, each captioned, signed by Daguerre ("Dessiné le 12 Novembre 1822 LJM Daguerre"); minor soiling and foxing, relatively short closed tears repaired. Handsomely matted, glazed, and framed.

Original drawings by L.J.M. Daguerre, the inventor of photography.

The recto features a series of four line drawings of Jewish subjects, as follows: "Juif tenant le Mezuzoth" (Jew holding a mezuzah); "Juif en habit de priereur" (Jew in prayer dress); "Ancien tombeau de Rachel, selon J. Nicolai" (Former Tomb of Rachel, according to J. Nicolai); "Tombeau de Rachel tel qu'on le voit a present selon Mr. Le Brun et autres voyageurs" (Tomb of Rachel as one sees it today according to Mr. Le Brun and other travelers)."

The verso contains twenty drawings by Daguerre of musical instruments, each captioned in manuscript.

Daguerre (1787-1851) began his professional artistic career as an artist and set designer, working at the Paris Opera. In 1822 he opened the Diorama next to his Paris studio, which presented a picture show with enormous paintings and lighting effects for a standing audience of 350 members.

Daguerre accomplished these drawings in the year he opened the Diorama. In that same year Joseph Nicéphore Niépce created the world’s first heliograph, the first permanent photograph from nature. Daguerre soon formed a partnership with Niépce to perfect a photographic process, the research of which ultimately yielded the daguerreotype, though only after Niépce had died. In 1839 the French government granted Daguerre and Niépce’s son a pension in exchange for the rights, making the process available as a gift from France, “free to the world" (see lot 1009).

Daguerre’s fine drawings are very scarce.