A rare album of portraits by 19th century French photographer Gustave Le Gray will be sold at Artcurial in Paris on November 15, as part of the Alfred de Vigny collection. This album which was bequeathed to the poet Alfred de Vigny by the family of Léon Maufras. Created between 1855 and 1859, the leather bound album contains 113 portraits, including a self-portrait signed in ink by the photographer. Several sitters in the portraits have yet to be identified.
All of the portraits in this album are rare. Portraits of important figures from the Second Empire – Alexandre Dumas, le prince Murat, Théodore de Banville ou Léon Maufras – mingle with portraits of the photographer’s circle, including his family and studio personnel. More than half of them are the only known prints known to exist to this day. Twelve portraits were reproduced in the catalogue of the Gustave Le Gray 1820- 1884 retrospective exhibition held at the Bibliothèque Nationale de France and the J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles in 2002.
The quality of the prints in this album, most of which have preserved their rich tonalities, demonstrate the photographer’s mastery of chemistry.
Estimation 120 000-150 000€
Link online catalogue :
http://www.artcurial.com/fr/asp/searchresults.asp?pg=1&ps=18&st=D&sale_no=3137+++
Exhibition :
Thursday, November 10th : 11 AM – 7 PM
Friday-Saturday, November 11th-12th : 11 AM – 6 PM
Monday, November 14th : 11 AM – 7 PM
Sale date : Tuesday, November 15th : 2:30 PM
Location :
ARTCURIAL
7 Rd. Point des Champs-Elysées
75008 Paris
www.artcurial.com
