The Roger-Viollet Gallery presents, from February 26 to June 6, 2026, the exhibition “The Hand-Colored World”, featuring 19th-century photographs from the Léon & Lévy Studio.
Contemporary prints distributed by the Roger-Viollet gallery
The Roger-Viollet Gallery is presenting for the first time a collection of 67 contemporary prints from these stereoscopic glass plates, now owned and preserved by the Bibliothèque historique de la Ville de Paris.
History
Shortly after Nicéphore Niepce invented photography in 1826-1827, making it possible to distribute still images on a large scale, engineers developed the process of stereoscopic views on glass.This made it possible to reproduce landscapes, street scenes, and portraits in relief, offering a new visual experience of the world.
Operators from the Léon & Lévy studio were sent to the four corners of the globe—from Japan to Spain, from Egypt to the United States. Most often anonymous, these photographers were tasked with faithfully reproducing tourist sites and locations while also taking portraits of the “indigenous populations.”
Yet these images lacked one essential element: color.
The technique
Back in Paris, in the workshops of the Léon & Lévy studio, other skilled hands came into play. Like miniature painters, using watercolors and sable brushes, colorists applied hues to a glass plate inserted between the photographic positive and a frosted glass plate.The sky, clothing, and architecture were then adorned with colors, this time giving free rein to the imagination and sensitivity of the artists.
An invitation to escape
Even before the advent of the postcard, this trade in hand-colored images was a true industry, employing hundreds of workers.Viewed through a stereoscope, these colored photographs offered a bourgeois clientele an immobile journey at once a tool for knowledge and an invitation to escape.
The Hand-Colored World – 19th-Century Photographs from the Léon & Lévy Studio
from February 26 to June 6, 2026
Galerie Roger-Viollet
6, rue de Seine
75006 Paris
Tél. : 01 55 42 89 00
www.galerie-roger-viollet.fr
