Interior in Russian graphics of the 19th - early 20th centuries

When photography was invented in the 19th century, it became possible to capture reality with documentary accuracy. People gladly began to take pictures, and soon the watercolor portrait ceased to be in demand, and the photographic portrait firmly took its place. However, progress did not affect the interior genre in any way: interiors continued to be painted in the same volume as before, and the demand for watercolor albums with views of palaces and estates was still as high. However, man-made sketches of interiors are valued to this day, even in the era of digital photography and the endless possibilities of image processing. Although, of course, rather as an excellent exception to the general rule.

V.P. Trofimov. White living room in the house of the Moscow Governor-General. Early 1900s. Fragment

A.P. Baryshnikov. Red living room in the house of the Moscow governor-general. 1902. Fragment

And then everyone who could afford it wanted to capture their home, family nest in colors. The photo was black and white, and the owners wanted to keep in mind not only the space and shape, but also the color. The photograph allowed geometric distortions, deterioration of sharpness as it moved away from the center, and the owners wanted not a single detail, not a single fragment to remain uncovered. There was another very important moment, because of which the interior genre in graphics continued to live and prosper despite technical innovations. We will definitely talk about it, but a little later. In the meantime, let's finally begin to consider these same watercolor "portraits" of interiors, in front of which advanced technology turned out to be powerless.

Drawings from the album of Countess E.A. Uvarova. 1889-1890

E.A. Uvarov. Study-living room in the estate of Counts Uvarovs (Porechye, Moscow province). 1890

E.A. Uvarov. Study-living room in the estate of Counts Uvarovs (Porechye, Moscow province). 1890. Fragment

Since the end of August 2016, the State Historical Museum in Moscow has opened an exhibition representing a whole gallery of graphic works of the 19th - early 20th centuries, united by the interior theme. Designers and architects are not often seen at such exhibitions, usually they prefer printed catalogs or pictures that have been leaked on the Internet. However, those who have seen the originals at least once understand how much “in real life” the impression is richer and more informative.

At the exhibition, you will find a fascinating immersion in the world of interiors of famous people of that time: the Empress, the Moscow Governor-General, an outstanding historian, the son of Admiral Kruzenshtern, the daughter of the chief architect of Odessa, the Minister of Education, a society lady and even a future saint.

The uniqueness is that these images are historical documents showing the interior decoration of the houses of the period under consideration with factual accuracy. For example, about the paintings of the Dutch of the 17th century, the founders of the interior genre, one cannot say so: the artists of that time preferred objects-symbols and allegory, as well as the clarity of the composition to the detriment of historical truth. In the 20th century, the author's view and emotional background, which the artist seeks to convey, rather than recreating real space, comes to the fore in the image of the interior. Therefore, the drawings of Russian masters of the 19th century, in addition to their artistic value, are also a reliable source of information on the history of the Russian interior.

Unknown artist. Enfilade of rooms in an unknown mansion. 1830s

We will tell you about some of the works that the exposition presents. The rest can be seen at the exhibition in the State Historical Museum until November 28, 2016, as well as in the catalog album Interior in Russian graphics of the 19th - early 20th centuries. From the collection of the State Historical Museum / Comp. E.A. Lukyanov. - M., 2016.

Living room in the estate of the princes Shakhovsky (Moscow province)- a wonderful example of comfort and simplicity of a classic noble house. A soft set, covered with light textiles with a floral pattern, successfully organizes the space, but does not deprive it of immediacy.

Unknown artist. Living room in the estate of the Shakhovsky princes (Belaya Kolp, Moscow province). 1850s

In the study-living room of the estate of the princes Shakhovsky simple forms of furniture are freely combined with a complex ceiling, and amber-colored Karelian birch — with white napkin seats and sofa upholstery that looks quite modern.

Unknown artist. Study-living room in the estate of the Shakhovsky princes (Belaya Kolp, Moscow province). 1850s

And here is a place where we would hardly be able to get in reality — office of Count Uvarov in the building of the Ministry of Public Education in St. Petersburg. S.S. Uvarov not only headed this same Ministry and was an outstanding political figure of his time, but also became famous as a brilliant scientist, connoisseur of classical antiquity and art collector. In the count's office there were, for example, Etruscan vases, a sculpture of cupid by E.M. Falcone, picturesque views of Venice, as well as many other valuable objects and paintings. The shape of the chandelier under the ceiling with a glass "umbrella" over a metal base is interesting.

A.N. Rakovich. Office of Count S.S. Uvarov in the building of the Ministry of Public Education in St. Petersburg. 1847

Study in the house of Professor Granovsky in Moscow captivates with its scholarly atmosphere: books in bookcases, books on an armchair, books on a chair and on a flower stand. On the tables — mountains of manuscripts. By the way, there are two tables. — one written, the other — desk — to work standing or sitting on a high stool. The outstanding Russian historian T.N. Granovsky is known for his scientific works and active social activities. So many prominent personalities of that time climbed the spiral staircase, the balustrade of which so gracefully decorates the office.

Unknown artist. An office in the house of T.N. Granovsky in Moscow. 1855

However, let's perhaps move a little away from science and politics and visit salon of the house of Victoria Frantsevna Marini, daughter of the leading architect of Odessa. It is light and calm here: pleasant colors, a carpet, groups of chairs in snow-white covers. The hall is zoned with textiles on the cornice. The front wall is decorated with draperies and narrow columns that serve as the basis for paintings.

Unknown artist. Salon in the house of V.F. Marini in Odessa. 1840s

Study-living room in the house of Maria Trofimovna Pashkova in St. Petersburg — a purely feminine territory: in pink and gold finishes, complex lambrequins with tassels on the windows, on the wardrobe — tea-set. However, the central place in the room is occupied by a large desk with cabinets for papers and a comfortable trough chair. Along the perimeter of the table, you can see a functional openwork fence. On the left is a sofa-couch with an asymmetrical back and wheels, on the right is a large mirror — a whole "oasis" in flower pots, doubled by mirror reflection.

Unknown artist. Study-living room in the house of M.T. Pashkova in St. Petersburg. 1830s

The exhibition presents two large series of watercolors illustrating the interiors of entire houses: the palace of the Moscow Governor-General Sergei Alexandrovich Romanov and the villa (cottage) of Princess Zinaida Yusupova. Both houses have survived to this day, but the historical interiors, unfortunately, are not. Therefore, it is especially interesting to see them in drawings that convey not only the life and atmosphere of that time, but also the personality traits of eminent owners.

front rooms houses of the Moscow governor-general, of course, impress with artistic integrity and luxurious design, but for practical designers, it would probably be more interesting to look into the private chambers of the Romanovs' house. Let's say in dressing room of Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich, brother of Alexander III and uncle Nicholas II. Equipped with plumbing with a tap and sinks, it nevertheless looks like an art gallery: on the walls there are dense hanging portraits of ancestors and relatives, saints and heroes, on the floor — carpeting, on the right is a sofa in satin upholstery. Although, if you imagine a room without paintings, it turns out that it is decorated very functionally and without pathos.

I.I. Nivinsky. The dressing room of Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich in the house of the Moscow Governor-General. 1905

The wife of Sergei Alexandrovich, Grand Duchess Elizaveta Feodorovna, was a German princess by birth, after marriage she converted to Orthodoxy. During her lifetime, she was distinguished by piety and mercy, after the revolution she was killed, and after many years — glorified in the face of the holy new martyrs. Two drawings, made in 1904-1905, well characterize the personality of this unique woman, a noble lady and at the same time a person with the qualities of a saint.

Prayer corner in the couple's bedroom decorated very comfortably and tastefully. In the corner — traditional canonical icons in a large carved folding icon-case. On the walls — paintings on a religious theme and icons placed in frames for painting. It can be seen that the hostess was aware of the new discoveries of the Christian world. — on the right wall above all the images is a copy of the face of Christ from the Shroud of Turin, which was first presented to the general public in 1898, after receiving photographs.

I.I. Nivinsky. The bedchamber of Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich and Grand Duchess Elizabeth Feodorovna in the house of the Moscow Governor-General. Corner with carved oak icon case and icons. 1904

And this boudoir of the Grand Duchess — the kingdom of textiles and light, a secluded, deeply personal space. The walls are covered with colored cloth, the doors and windows are framed with curtains; table, chair, ottoman wrapped in fabric entirely; there is a carpet on the floor, a lamp in a green “skirt” with ruffles. Here and there lie white airy napkins embroidered with richelieu. The monumental wooden dressing table standing on the right looks in contrast. An interesting vertical picture above the trellis, more like a poster or a large book illustration depicting a Russian village in winter.

I.I. Nivinsky. Boudoir of the Grand Duchess Elizabeth Feodorovna in the house of the Moscow Governor-General. 1905

By the way, not all works from the album of interiors of the princely couple Sergei Alexandrovich and Elizabeth Feodorovna are exhibited at the exhibition. The full cycle can be seen in the exhibition catalogue.

Before moving on to the story of the second house, which is dedicated to a series of works, let's look at one more study. It was impossible to pass by and not mention it in any way. This is study-library in the mansion of the manufacturer K.O. Giro in Moscow. Claudius Osipovich came from France and founded a weaving factory in Moscow, which later became one of the largest in Russia. The room is impeccable in its arrangement of furniture, symmetry and compositional balance. Each object and object is in the right place and in a clear connection with other objects. Integrity is also achieved by using the same fabric for the sofa, chairs and curtains.

A. Teich. Cabinet-library in the mansion of K.O. Giro in Moscow. 1898

Princess Zinaida Ivanovna Yusupova, the villa (cottage) which was sketched by the artist, — this is not the blue-eyed brunette from Serov's portrait, but her grandmother. Also an incredible beauty and sophisticated aristocrat, the first lady at St. Petersburg balls. Luxurious cottage in Tsarskoye Selo was built by the court architect I.A. The monighetti is neo-baroque, and the interiors are decorated in various styles. The author of the album with views of the interior is one of the leading watercolorists of that time, Vasily Sadovnikov — also a courtier, but an artist. The Yusupov family was so influential and wealthy that they could afford to use the services of specialists who worked for the emperors.

V.S. Sadovnikov. Living room in Chinese style. Villa (cottage) of Princess Z.I. Yusupova in Tsarskoye Selo. 1872

Sadovnikov worked like a true professional. At first he made pencil sketches of all the details of the interior. Then he drew the perspective of the room and created a general, universal perspective, synthesizing it from several options. Then he drew a sketch of the interior, accurately distributing objects in a new image “synthesized” from several angles, achieving maximum coverage of the room and the absence of distortion. At the very end, I painted everything. The result was an ideal presentation of the interior, with a detailed panorama of the room and correction of geometric distortions.

In general, the artist made by hand what today is called panoramic photography, assembled from individual images, as well as digital image correction, carried out using compensation algorithms in graphic editors.

V.S. Sadovnikov. Louis style living roomXVI. Villa (cottage) of Princess Z.I. Yusupova in Tsarskoye Selo. 1872

Remember, at the beginning of the article, we promised to talk about another very important point, why the 19th century camera could not defeat watercolor interiors? That's exactly why. The camera couldn't do that. I could not "grab" a large space as widely as possible, create a holistic perspective without geometric distortions, and maintain a harmonious look of each object. All this became possible only in the digital age, with the advent of photo post-processing programs.

And then ... And then, apparently, they simply loved their houses very much, the unusual "interior" beauty and things dear to the heart, — loved so much that they did not want to be content with black and white conventions and small fragments. No, we needed color, and air, and a high ceiling, and a clock on the fireplace, and plant compositions — everything to the max. And since the artists were talented, they could convey it — then love for the interior was manifested in its entirety, through detailed watercolor “portraits”. We can only sincerely rejoice, because thanks to the fact that the graphic interior genre was not defeated by progress, we can still enjoy the beauty of the Russian house hundreds of years later.

G.G. Gagarin. Enfilade of rooms in an unknown mansion. 1830-1840s

Exhibition “Interiors in Russian graphics of the 19th — early 20th centuries. From the collection of the State Historical Museum” is open until November 28, 2016 at the address: Moscow, Red Square, 1.

Photography became a complete, accurate and objective document a very long time ago, at the dawn of its development. One might even say that it is in its infancy. For example, back in 1849, the National Gazette newspaper, which was published at that time in Philadelphia, wrote that very soon photographers with their equipment would freely visit various foreign states, the royal courts of Europe, the Giza pyramids, the Holy Land in Jerusalem, the Red Sea ... From these trips, photographers will bring an accurate representation of all these cultural sites and amazing corners of the world. And the townsfolk will not need to spend a lot of money on long trips in order to admire all this splendor with their own eyes. “The buds on the tree will not be able to swell and bloom, the flower will not be able to scatter seeds or vegetables will not be able to shoot shoots without these wonderful processes being captured in an accurate photograph,” wrote an unknown journalist to the National Gazette in the middle of the century before last.

In the fifties and sixties of the 19th century, the status of photography is revealed especially clearly. And it manifests itself mainly in its relationship with the fine arts. The appearance of a completely new process of obtaining an image on a plane - photography - gave impetus to the shock wave, which rather quickly stirred up the entire world of contemporary art. Of course, the artists were the first to see their rival in the face of photography. Over the artists, book graphics and other illustrators hung a real threat of loss of orders and unemployment. This threat seemed to them very serious, because the artistic ideal of the most detailed realism in reproducing nature with the help of photography in those years was almost sovereign. The well-known artist Delaroche, with sadness, but, nevertheless, with pleasant excitement, said then: "From now on, painting is dead." Well, now, living in the 21st century, we clearly see that Delaroche's prophecy, fortunately, did not come true. But, nevertheless, his other thoughts were very accurate. Even then he foresaw and said that photography meets all the requirements of fine art, and contains all its principles that lead to perfection.

There has long been such an opinion that, supposedly, those who, for one reason or another, could not become artists, become photographers. But at the dawn of the development of photography, everything happened exactly the opposite. The artists, who at the right moment managed to catch in photography the real signs of a new emerging art, having felt the changes of the time, changed their profession without regret and began to master the process of obtaining an image, which was new for that time - photographic technique. Well, along the way, in the meantime, at the same time, the artistic design of photographs. And this seriously increased the competition for graphic artists. A lot of photographers of that time were professional artists, engravers, retouchers as photography developed, but then they left this job and devoted themselves entirely to photography. Even very famous artists of those years were engaged in coloring black and white photographic images. It is they who today can be called the forerunners of the developers of modern graphic editors. At that time, gouache, aniline paints, watercolors with the addition of white and much more were used to colorize photographs. The first colorized black and white photographs were very similar to delicate watercolor paintings. This technique created in the viewer the impression of tenderness and transparency of the work he was considering. At the same time, the technique of albumin prints appeared - soft sepia. Silver bromine prints were distinguished by their black and white rigor and conciseness. Both of these techniques successfully coexisted with each other by the end of the 19th century and did not compete with hand-colored photographic prints.

Look at this unique photograph, which is the result of a collaboration between a photographer and an artist. It depicts a view of Venice at night. This photograph - a panorama of the Grand Canal - was toned by hand. The picture was taken during the day. The sun, fixed on a photographic plate by a photographer, was turned into the moon by an experienced colorist. As a result of their joint work, we see a romantic night landscape.

At the end of the century before last, watercolor photography experienced a sharp rise and wide success. It is becoming a very popular and, moreover, inexpensive form of art for the consumer. And those who do not have the finances to undertake a trip to distant countries, but would like to make such trips, willingly acquired such works - colorized photographs. So to speak, they made a virtual trip, a virtual tour or even a pilgrimage with the help of photography.

The events that are developing so favorably for photography have rendered her an invaluable service: a lot of excellent photographers and colorists have appeared all over the world who have “knocked their hand” in this popular business, who have understood the importance of its artistic design, well-constructed composition.

Charles Baudelaire, a famous French poet and literary critic, was very hostile at that time to the art of photography and to photography in general. He very strongly condemned the betrayal of artists to their work and even said that some kind of corruption had arisen in the art world. A dense atmosphere of illegality was created around the photograph. This is the case even today - many illustrators of our day are actively opposed to everyone knowing how much their knowledge, possession of information, and sometimes creative inspiration depends on photography.

The widespread use of photography in the fifties and sixties of the 19th century was superimposed on a surge of work on the restoration of world-famous architectural monuments, masterpiece paintings and works of sculpture classics. Photographers began to help scientists, mainly archaeologists and restorers. They were engaged in photographic fixation of ancient objects and artifacts discovered during excavations, all kinds of burials and other finds. Photographers were also very often entrusted with the systematization of archaeological finds and works of art.

Toward the end of the century before last, photographing the terrain and landscapes became in demand when carrying out various kinds of topographic work, as the global restructuring of the world's largest cities began.

By that time, various genres of photography began to emerge in photography. These genres were basically inherited from other, older types of visual arts. But, nevertheless, many photographers still continue to reproduce monumental paintings. Despite the fact that there was still no color in the photograph, such photo reproductions made it possible to convey to the viewer quite well all the grandeur of the original, the entire depth of the space depicted in the picture, to imagine the color, to feel the texture of the depicted object or object, whether it be a building, a landscape, or some that subject...

A sharp leap in the development of photography as a fine art occurred at the end of the 19th century in Venice, in northern Italy. And it is no wonder that it is there. After all, Venice is a real city-museum, where every house, every palace, every one of the numerous bridges are real masterpieces of architecture. Almost any of the Venetian streets can be called works of art.

The following years after the middle of the 19th century were also rich in discoveries in photography. Then already almost every family could afford to have a stereoscope and a set of postcards for viewing through it, the so-called stereo pairs. Especially popular were stereo pairs depicting views of cities, beautiful landscapes, historical buildings, museum halls, interiors of palaces and other attractions. All this, as we have already said, replaced far from cheap travel to distant and unexplored countries. Stereo pairs and simple postcards with erotic scenes were produced. This approach to photography, in general, has been preserved to this day. True, photography has become digital, virtual, existing on the monitor screen. And the picture, printed on paper, turned into a kind of, as they say now, vintage.

The photographic postcard appeared in wide use around the 80s and 90s of the 19th century. In addition to the fact that on such a postcard one could see interesting photographs depicting the beauties of distant countries, it could be sent by mail or other ways to friends or relatives in another city with good wishes written on the back. And you could take a picture yourself against the backdrop of sights ... Today, for such a “hello”, an inexpensive mobile phone in the pocket of anyone, even a completely poor person or even a schoolboy, is enough ...

During the years of photographic postcards, enterprising book publishers discovered new opportunities to profit from the publication of various types of guides to historical places of the world, illustrated with photographs. Photographers on their orders began to actively photograph the sights of cities in different countries. Moreover, those countries that were far from the country where it was planned to publish the guide. After all, a trip to distant countries was not available to everyone, it cost, as they say now, big money ... And it was much cheaper to buy a guidebook. This is how the photo travel genre began its triumph around the world. He is still alive and includes almost the entire palette of photographic genres.

In the middle of the century before last, large publishing houses also began to appear. And in parallel with them, a network of small private photo studios and photo workshops began to develop. As researchers of photographic art write, referring to eyewitnesses and contemporaries, in the Venetian region in the fifties of the 19th century there was a photographer in almost every seedy village. Today, as we said a little higher, every schoolchild in every village has a mobile phone with a built-in camera, not to mention cities and other settlements. Nevertheless, this does not mean at all that each of the owners of mobile phones can be called a photographer.

And then came the twentieth century. With its beginning, a grandiose debate began among photographers about whether it is possible and necessary to correct a photographic image or even change something in it. And to what extent it is generally possible and should be done. It is now the 21st century in the yard. But these disputes have not yet subsided, they periodically return and excite the minds of the entire world photographic community. What can be considered a work of art, and what is just a photograph? Where is the boundary between this and that? If a photographic image has not been subjected to any interference on the part of the photographer, can it be considered unique and original? Can it be called a work of art? According to most art critics and theorists of photographic art, and photographers themselves, of course, you can. Moreover, this is precisely the skill of the photographer, his flair, sense of proportion, mastery of composition and other visual means of photography.

But let's, nevertheless, again fast forward 150 years ago. Here is what the famous English photographer Alvin Langdon Coburn wrote in 1913: “I want to make it as clear as possible that I do not believe in any additional work and in any manipulation of photographic negatives and prints.” But the American Ann Brigman, also a no less famous photographer of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, promoted a completely opposite approach to the art of photography. She was a fierce proponent of active intervention in the photographic image. Ann Brigman made double-positives from her original negatives, made all kinds of changes to these takes, finished them manually, after which she made new negatives from them, from which, in turn, she printed the final version of the pictures. “The engraving tool is one of my closest allies,” wrote Ann Brigman, “I destroy everything useless with it. I have strayed far from the straight and narrow path of direct photography.”

Today, photography is conquering the world of art more and more confidently. And not only art, but also the sphere of documentaries, the world of memories of the past of any family, any society. About all the significant and not very events in people's lives.

The French master of photography Gustave Le Gey, who was one of the most influential photographers of the 19th century, despite the fact that his career lasted only a little over ten years, believed that the future of photography did not lie in its cheapness, as many thought then, but in image quality. Le Gey said that if the picture is durable, finished, just good, then it will undoubtedly acquire a lasting value, hardly comparable to its own cost. “For my part, I express the desire,” said the great French photographer, “that photography, instead of falling into the abyss of industry or commerce, could remain an art. Only in art is its true place, and I will always strive to ensure that photography remains in this direction. The years of the life of Gustav Le Ge - 1820-1882. It seems to us that his words became prophetic.

However, fortunately or unfortunately, let's each leave his choice. Let everyone decide for himself whether photography today has stepped beyond the bounds of art, whether it has become a mass product, and not always even of good quality, since today it doesn’t matter at all what equipment is used to shoot and where it takes place, or whether it is still remains one of the fine arts.

In our time, for several years now, some photography fans and professional masters have begun to take a step back, as it were, returning to shooting on film. And some, however, did not leave an analog photograph. A film and only a film - they consider. And no computer processing. No graphic editor. The skill of the author and his ability to convey to the viewer his own and only his own, personal, view of certain things or events captured in the photograph.

When today we look at old photographs from a family album, or archival photographs reproduced in books and magazines and compare them with modern, very often rather strange works of today's masters of photographic art, we must not forget that photography always contains much more information. than the one that catches the eye at the first glance at it. The personal attitude of the author to the object being photographed, his personal associations, the peculiarities of his creative vision and much more within the framework of each particular picture create, organize a unique world that no one else can repeat. A good photograph is like an academic painting. With each new return to her, she gives the viewer more and more new discoveries.

The desire to capture the moments of life that happen to a person or the world around him has always existed. This is evidenced by rock paintings and fine arts. In the paintings of artists, accuracy and detail were especially appreciated, the ability to capture an object from a favorable angle, light, convey a color palette, and shadows. Such work sometimes took months of work. It was this desire, as well as the desire to reduce time costs, that became the impetus for the creation of such an art form as photography.

The advent of photography

In the 4th century BC, Aristotle, a famous scientist from Ancient Greece, noticed a curious fact: the light that seeped through a small hole in the window shutter repeated the landscape seen outside the window with shadows on the wall.

Further, in the treatises of scientists from Arab countries, the phrase literally meaning "dark room" begins to be mentioned. It turned out to be a device in the form of a box with a hole in the front, with the help of which it became possible to copy still lifes and landscapes. Later, the box was improved, providing moving halves and a lens, which made it possible to focus on the picture.

Thanks to new features, the pictures became much brighter, and the device was called the "light room", that is, the camera lucina. Such simple technologies allowed us to find out what Arkhangelsk looked like in the middle of the 17th century. With their help, the perspective of the city was taken, which is distinguished by accuracy.

Stages of development of photography

In the 19th century, Joseph Niepce invented a method of photography, which he called heliogravure. Shooting by this method took place in bright sunshine and lasted up to 8 hours. Its essence was as follows:

A metal plate was taken, which was covered with bituminous varnish.

The plate was directly exposed to bright light, which did not dissolve the varnish. But this process was heterogeneous and depended on the strength of the illumination in each of the sections.

Then poisoned with acid.

As a result of all the manipulations, a relief, engraved picture appeared on the plate. The next significant stage in the development of photography was the daguerreotype. The method got its name from the name of its inventor, Louis Jacques Mande Daguerre, who was able to get an image on a silver plate treated with iodine vapor.

The next method was calotype, invented by Henry Talbot. The advantage of the method was the ability to make copies of one image, which, in turn, was reproduced on paper impregnated with silver salt.

The first acquaintance with the art of photography in Russia

The history of Russian photography has been going on for more than a century and a half. And this story is full of different events and interesting facts. Thanks to the people who discovered the art of photography for our country, we can see Russia through the prism of time as it was many years ago.

The history of photography in Russia begins in 1839. It was then that a member of the Academy of Sciences of Russia, I. Hamel, went to Great Britain, where he got acquainted with the calotype method, having studied it in detail. Then he sent a detailed description. Thus, the first photographs made by the calotype method were obtained, which are still stored in the Academy of Sciences in the amount of 12 pieces. The photographs bear the signature of the inventor of the method, Talbot.

After that, Hamel meets Daguerre in France, under whose guidance he takes several pictures with his own hands. In September 1841, the Academy of Sciences received a letter from Hamel, in which, according to him, was the first photograph taken from nature. A photograph taken in Paris shows a female figure.

After that, photography in Russia began to gain momentum, rapidly developing. Between the 19th and 20th centuries, photographers from Russia began to take part in international photography exhibitions and salons on a general basis, where they received prestigious awards and prizes, and had membership in the relevant communities.

Talbot's way

The history of photography in Russia was developed thanks to people who were keenly interested in a new kind of art. So was Julius Fedorovich Fritzsche, a famous Russian botanist and chemist. He was the first to master the Talbot method, which consisted in obtaining a negative on photosensitive paper and then printing it on a sheet treated with silver salts and developing in sunlight.

Fritzsche took the first calotype photographs of plant leaves, after which he appeared before the Academy of Sciences in St. Petersburg in May 1839 with a report. In it, he reported that he found the calotype method suitable for capturing flat objects. For example, the method is suitable for taking photographs of original plants with the accuracy required by a botanist.

Contribution by J. Fritzsche

Thanks to Fritzsche, the history of photography in Russia stepped a little further: he proposed replacing sodium hyposulfate, which Talbot used to develop the picture, with ammonia, which noticeably modernized the calotype, improving image quality. Julius Fedorovich was also the first in the country and one of the first in the world to conduct research work on photography and photographic art.

Alexey Grekov and the "art booth"

The history of photography in Russia continued, and the next contribution to its development was made by Alexei Grekov. A Moscow inventor and engraver, he was the first Russian master of photography to master both calotype and daguerreotype. And if you ask a question about what the first cameras were in Russia, then it is Grekov's invention, the "art room", that can be considered as such.

The first camera, created by him in 1840, made it possible to take high-quality portrait photographs with good sharpness, which many photographers who tried to achieve this could not. Grekov came up with a chair with special comfortable pads that supported the head of the person being photographed, allowing him not to get tired during a long sitting and to maintain a motionless position. And it took a long time for a person to be motionless in a chair: 23 minutes in the bright sun, and on a cloudy day - all 45.

The master of photography Grekov is considered to be the first portrait photographer in Russia. To achieve excellent portrait photographs, he was also helped by the photographic device he invented, consisting of a wooden camera into which light did not penetrate. But at the same time, the boxes could slide out one from the other and return to their place. At the front of the outer box, he attached a lens, which was a lens. The inner box contained a light sensitive plate. By changing the distance between the boxes, that is, by moving them one from the other or vice versa, it was possible to achieve the necessary sharpness of the image.

Contribution of Sergey Levitsky

The next person, thanks to whom the history of photography in Russia continued to develop rapidly, was Sergei Levitsky. Daguerreotypes of Pyatigorsk and Kislovodsk, made by him in the Caucasus, appeared in the history of Russian photography. As well as the gold medal of an art exhibition held in Paris, where he sent pictures to participate in the competition.

Sergey Levitsky was in the forefront of photographers who suggested changing the decorative background for filming. They also decided to retouch portrait photographs and their negatives in order to reduce or completely remove technical flaws, if any.

Levitsky leaves for Italy in 1845, deciding to improve the level of knowledge and skills in the field of daguerreotype. He takes pictures of Rome, as well as portrait photos of Russian artists who lived there. And in 1847 he comes up with a photographic apparatus with folding fur, using the fur from the accordion for this. The innovation allowed the camera to become more mobile, which was largely reflected in the expansion of photography opportunities.

Sergei Levitsky returned to Russia as a professional photographer, having opened his own daguerreotype workshop "Light Painting" in St. Petersburg. With her, he also opens a photo studio with a rich collection of photographic portraits of Russian artists, writers and public figures. He does not give up studying the art of photography, continuing to empirically study the use of electric light and its combination with solar and their influence on photographs.

Russian trace in photography

Artists, masters of photography, inventors and scientists from Russia have made a great contribution to the history and development of photography. So, among the creators of new types of cameras, such Russian surnames as Sreznevsky, Ezuchevsky, Karpov, Kurdyumov are known.

Even Dmitri Ivanovich Mendeleev took an active part, dealing with theoretical and practical problems of making photographs. And together with Sreznevsky, they stood at the origins of the creation of the photographic department in the Russian Technical Society.

The successes of Andrey Denyer, a bright master of Russian photography, who can be put on the same level with Levitsky, are widely known. He was the creator of the first photo album with portraits of famous scientists, doctors, travelers, writers, artists. And the photographer A. Karelin became known throughout Europe and entered the history of photography as the founder of the genre of everyday photography.

Development of photography in Russia

Interest in photography at the end of the 19th century increased not only among specialists, but also among the common population. And in 1887, the "Photographic Bulletin" was published, a magazine in which information was collected on recipes, chemical compositions, photo processing methods, and theoretical data.

But before the revolution in Russia, the opportunity to engage in artistic photography was available only to a small number of people, since almost none of the inventors of the camera had the opportunity to produce them on an industrial scale.

In 1919, V. I. Lenin issued a decree on the transfer of the photographic industry under the control of the People's Commissariat of Education, and in 1929 the creation of light-sensitive photographic materials began, which later became available to everyone. And already in 1931, the first domestic camera "Photokor" appeared.

The role of Russian masters, photo artists, inventors in the development of photographic art is great and occupies a worthy place in the world history of photography.

The Japanese Souvenir exhibition is a contemporary look at the photographic legacy of the Meiji era (1865–1912). It was during this historical period that Japan became accessible to foreigners after two hundred years of isolation.

Part of the exhibition is devoted to studio and plein-air works by professional Japanese photographers: Kusakabe Kimbei, Ueno Hikoma, Ogawa Kazumasa. Their names are inscribed in the "golden fund" of world photography in the last third of the 19th century.

The exhibition also presents works by famous European authors who worked in Japan: Felice Beato, Adolfo Farsari, Raimund von Stillfried-Rathenitz, their Japanese students and colleagues.

Until 1859, foreigners were not allowed to work in the Land of the Rising Sun. Only since 1868, during the reign of Emperor Mutsuhito, European photographers were able to open their own studios in some cities of Japan.

Felice Beato can be considered the pioneer who first opened Japan to world photography. Photographic portraits of "bijin" (beautiful women), urban and rural types, genre scenes and even landscape - all these "pictures of the passing world" make Japanese photography related to engraving. Likeengraving, albumin prints were colored. Since the firstlandscape photographs of Japan were made by Italian, French and English photographers and were intended for Western buyers, the construction of the frame, in contrast to the studio, rather flat shooting, sometimes strikes with its depth, but unlike the Japanese engraving, it is not burdened with details.

Umbrella painting
Kusakabe Kimbei
1880s - 1890s

Buddha statue in Kamakura
Ogawa Kazumasa
1890s

Geisha in palanquin-cago
Shinise Suzuki
1890s

Japanese girls at lunch
Unknown author

View of Kashiwabara Bay and Mount Fuji
Unknown author
1890s

Many-faced Russia

Russia is an ancient country with a long history, which celebrated its thousandth anniversary in 1862. The project "Many Faces of Russia" presents archival photographs of the 19th century: landscape and genre photographs, portraits of people and frames with images of architectural monuments of Russian cities. By conveying the ethnic and cultural diversity of the country, the photographs add up to a voluminous historical image of Russia.

The project includes archival photographs from the collection of the State Museum and Exhibition Center ROSPHOTO, depicting the views of the major urban centers of the Russian Empire: St. Petersburg, Moscow, Novgorod, Arkhangelsk, Rostov - and the authentic life of the national outskirts. Species, ethnographic and portrait photographs reflect the cultural and social diversity of a multinational country. Historical and architectural monuments, the construction of transport routes, national costumes and rituals - this and much more on the pictures of the best photographers of their time makes up a panorama of images of many-sided Russia.

The works of Ivan Barshchevsky, the studio "Boisson and Eggler", Maxim Dmitriev, Dmitry Ermakov, William Carrick, Alfred Laurens, Count Nostitz, Yakov Leitzinger and many others - with historical accuracy and artistic expressiveness convey the diversity of the lifestyle of the population of the Russian state in the second half of the XIX - the beginning of the 20th century.

Atelier Levitsky and Son
Grand Duchess Xenia Alexandrovna with Grand Duke Alexander Mikhailovich and Emperor Nicholas II
Saint Petersburg, 1894

The text was written for the exhibition "St. Petersburg in the work of German photographers of the 19th century", which is taking place these days at the Museum of the History of St. Petersburg and presents little-known unique photographs created in the 19th century by migrant photographers from German lands: Karl Bulla, Karl Doutendey, Alfred Lawrence, Albert Felish. The work of these four German photographers, who worked in different photographic genres: portrait, landscape, reportage photography, quite fully conveys the picture of the life of the imperial capital of the 19th century. The exhibition can be viewed until January 14, 2015 (St. Petersburg, Peter and Paul Fortress, exhibition hall of the Ioannovsky Ravelin).

After the publication of Daguerre's invention in the summer of 1839, first in Paris, and then outside of France, a real daguerreo mania began. After all, Academician Arago authoritatively stated that, firstly, “... an invention is not one of those that can be protected by a patent,” and secondly, “As soon as it is made public, everyone can use it. The most clumsy tester of this method will be able to produce the same drawings as the most skillful artist. From the point of view of the ease of taking pictures, daguerreotype does not contain a single technique that any person could not perform. It absolutely does not require the ability to draw and does not need special dexterity either. If one strictly adheres to certain, very simple and few rules, then there is not a single person who could not make a daguerreotype with the same confidence and as well as Mr. Daguerre himself makes pictures. Crowds of people gathered near the Parisian windows with exhibited samples of “monochrome reflections in a frame”, and the most enterprising citizens, quickly realizing that this easy business could be profitable, rushed for tools for a new way of painting. The spirit of the times that reigned in Paris - the spirit of enterprise and commerce - drove the first photographers out of France, and soon they went to towns and villages to amaze the world with mirrors that preserve "the reflection of a certain figure in the absence of this very figure" (Viollet de Luc). In the classic essay "Paris, Capital of the Nineteenth Century," the German philosopher Walter Benjamin argued that the flowering of photography in the first decade was due to the fact that "photographers were representatives of the cultural avant-garde, which [the avant-garde] supplied a significant part of their clientele." Let's try to verify the validity of these words on the example of the pioneers of photography Karl Doutendey, Albert Laurens, Alfred Felisch and Karl Bulla, who moved from German lands to St. Petersburg.

Carl Dauthendey

Carl Albert Doutendey was born on November 1, 1819 in the town of Aschersleben (Saxony-Anhalt), in the family of Heinrich Salomon Doutendey and Johanna Dorothea Happach. At the age of fourteen, he was assigned to study the craft of an optician-mechanic in Magdeburg, and at the age of 20, the student became an apprentice at the prestigious Taubert optical institution in Leipzig. It was here, two years later, that he decisively changed his life path and chose the newest profession of a daguerreotypist. Here's how it happened. In 1841, a certain French traveler appeared in Leipzig with his camera obscura. A visiting merchant, having shown several daguerreotypes to the local owner of the optical institute, immediately sold him his instrument. The deal went through, but it soon became clear that the optician had acquired not so much a "dark box" as a "pig in a poke", because there was no clear manual for creating images with the camera. The optician did not succeed, and the "Parisian deception" was sent to the closet. However, Karl Dauthendey, who worked for him as an apprentice, caught fire and, saying to himself: “There is something in this,” he borrowed money, bought a box and began to experiment in his free time, independently mastering the “daguerre secret”. His first studio was a garden, and his first models were a gardener, a maid and a soldier. After some time, the case was finally crowned with success and a small triangle appeared on a silver-plated copper plate - a cutout near the dress on the servant's neck. “Eureka,” exclaimed the newly minted photographer, “I did it.” Something like this describes the beginning of the career of "the first photographer on German soil" Karl Doutendey, his son Max in his biographical book.

Further events developed as follows. In May of the following 1842, Doubendey demonstrated his success in making daguerreotypes at the famous Leipzig Fair, after which the news of the new pictorial technique spread throughout Germany. Soon the pioneer was invited to the Duchy of Anhalt-Dessau to shoot crowned persons. Having successfully photographed the Duke of Dessau and his entire family on a daguerreotype, the 23-year-old photographer armed himself with a letter of recommendation from the Duchess (a relative of the Russian Empress) and in October 1843 set off to conquer the capital of the Russian Empire. However, everything turned out to be not so simple. Despite the patronage from his homeland, he did not manage to overcome Russian bureaucratic obstacles and slingshots for a long time without proper connections and obligatory bribes, and access to the court was closed to him. P.M. told about his initial ordeals in Russia. Olkhin, in the future - a well-known "photographer" and a relative of the photographer. “Without knowing either the Russian language, or local conditions, and having no acquaintances with whom he could consult, the young man was in a very difficult position. Time passed and little savings melted away, so that Doubenday even began to inquire about the method of buying and the price of black bread, so that, eating it, he could live longer. Finally, according to Olkhin, there was a rather chance meeting with a sympathetic Petersburger who helped the newcomer with money and took care of the formalities for opening a photographic establishment. (In all likelihood, it was Rabbi Olshwang). One way or another, but in January 1844, the St. Petersburg newspapers told the public about “daguerreochimegraphy, or daguerreotype portraits in paints,” which were made in the “Atelier of Karl Doutendey from Berlin” on Bolshaya Konyushennaya Street in the Forstrem house. The atelier began to enjoy success, but the daguerreotype portrait came out only in one copy, and to expand the business, another technology was needed - one that could provide circulation. The process of making photographs on a paper negative with subsequent printing of positive copies in any number - calotype - was proposed in England by Fox Talbot as early as 1839, but it was protected by patents. Doutendey's attempts to master the calotype on his own, following the incomplete instructions of the Englishman, were unsuccessful, and in February 1847 he went to Leipzig to master the innovation, in the studio of his colleagues Eduard and Bertha Weinert.

On January 3, 1848, an announcement appeared in the Saint Petersburg Vedomosti newspaper: “... I have the honor to announce to the most respected public and art lovers that I am making a new kind of daguerreotype portraits - which are much more excellent than ordinary ones made on metal plates. Here are the advantages of the new daguerreotypes: 1) In these newly invented portraits, the person being photographed is depicted in the correct position, so that all accessories, for example, military swords and orders, are visible in their place. This naturally increases the similarity. 2) Such a portrait on paper can be delivered in any number of copies, moreover, copies cost much less than the first picture. Since I have the original of the portrait, I can at any time, at the request of the hunters, make copies. 3) I also color these portraits on paper, which, with a variety of colors, take on the appearance of a beautiful watercolor and can be seen from all sides, which is inconvenient with ordinary daguerreotypes.<…>The confidence and praise expressed to me by the most respectable public, and the repeated approval of the improvements to my portraits by the local journals, make me hope for numerous visits and the favor of amateurs.<…>Sessions for taking portraits last no longer than 5-30 seconds and are given daily in all weather from 10 am to 3 noon. My workshop, which I have now significantly enlarged, is located in Bolshaya Konyushennaya 4 Street, across the Finnish Church in the house of Koshansky No. 16. The hopes of the master were justified. According to family legend, a person close to the court of Nicholas I ordered Dautendey an album with more than 60 portraits of famous personalities from the tsar’s entourage, after which “the crowd of arriving and departing carriages in front of my father’s studio was so great during the week that the police had to intervene. Twenty artists were hired to color the images,” writes Max Douthenday. From that moment, connections were made and success came. The famous master carefully signed and numbered his photographs, and from these autographs we can assess the scale of the studio on Konyushennaya Street. In the museum-reserve "Muranovo Estate" named after F.I. Tyutchev, a portrait of the poet, taken by Dautendey on a calotype around 1850, has been preserved. Under the image is the autograph of the light painter and the order number - 5017. The figure is impressive!

In January 1852, the magazine Pantheon informed readers: “Photography or light painting on paper, as you know, belongs to the most important new discoveries. It was invented by Talbot, the perfecter of the daguerreotype, and has the advantage of taking portraits from nature to paper by means of sunlight: the resemblance is striking, to which no artist's brush can reach, and, moreover, the image never fades or fades, as in ordinary daguerreotypes. pictures. We have in St. Petersburg an excellent photographic artist, Mr. Dautendey, a student of Talbot, born in England.” The passages in the newspapers "... from Berlin" and "born an Englishman", of course, are not a mistake or an accident: the advertisement was submitted taking into account the mentality of the local public. From the more rigorous "Statistical Information on the Factories and Plants of the Exhibitors Who Received Awards at the Manufactory Exhibition in 1861", we know the last St. Petersburg address of the photographer: "Dautendey Karl, Prussian subject, photographer. The photographic institution is located in St. Petersburg on Nevsky Prospekt, at number 58, founded in 1843. The work is carried out by five devices. At that time, he, like all photographers, made portraits using the new “wet collodion technology”.

The personal life of the maestro in Russia was also not easy. After a year of his stay in St. Petersburg, in 1844, the daguerreotypist married the daughter of a rabbi, Anna Olshvang, who gave birth to him first a girl and a boy who died at an early age, and then four more daughters. Anna, suffering from postpartum depression, committed suicide in 1855. In 1855, Charles Dauthendey married a second time to Charlotte Caroline Friedrich, the daughter of German colonists who had settled in Russia in the days of Peter the Great from southern Germany. In 1860, Charles and Charlotte Caroline had a son, Caspar. In 1862, Karl Dauthendey left Russia with his family and settled in Germany, in Würzburg, where two years later, at the age of 48, he founded a new studio in the Main Quarter at Burgergasse, 2. Here in 1867 his second son, Maximilian, was born. In 1876, the newly widowed master built an imposing residential and trading house at 9 Kaiserstraße with two ateliers and a workshop in which he continued to experiment with lithographs and the color process. For his pioneering discoveries in these areas, the inventor received prizes in Philadelphia and Vienna.

Carl Albert Douthendey, "the first photographer on German soil", died on September 5, 1896 in Würzburg, Bavaria, at the age of 76. No matter how successful an entrepreneur Karl Dauthenday was, his hopes for his sons to continue the business did not come true. The eldest son Kaspar, who was born in St. Petersburg, shot himself in a fit of illness in 1875 in Philadelphia. The younger - Maximilian - became a famous artist and poet. In 1912, Max Douthenday wrote the book The Spirit of My Father, in which he colorfully spoke about the full ups and downs of the life path of a pioneer father.

Alfred Laurens / Alfred Laurens

"A photographer of paramount importance" - this is how the pioneer of Russian scientific photography, editor of the magazine "Photographer" V. I. Sreznevsky spoke about Alfred Lawrence in 1882. Unfortunately, history has conveyed to us very little information about the once famous St. Petersburg master of the first decades of the development of photography. Sreznevsky, an expert on the history of domestic photography, could be taken at his word, but the facts at our disposal, albeit few, indicate that in the second half of the 19th century, Lawrence's photographic studio enjoyed well-deserved success in St. Petersburg and beyond.

In the historical and statistical guide “Petersburg in the palm of your hand”, compiled by V. O. Mikhnevich in 1874, it appears that the photographic company “Lorens” began its activities in St. Petersburg in 1855. However, the materials preserved in the Russian State Historical Archive (RGIA) give us a different date. From them it turns out that in 1862 the photographer Lawrence “had a residence in the Bosse house on Nevsky Prospekt” and in the same year acquired a new apartment on Bolshaya Morskaya Street. In this house on the corner of Bolshaya Morskaya and Kirpichny Lane in those years there was the Diocesan Guardianship for the poor of the clergy. In April 1862, Lawrence asked the authorities to allow him to set up a photographic establishment in his new apartment. With the consent of the patronage, a “photographic bright lantern” was arranged over the apartment, and a cast-iron umbrella was placed at the entrance. At the same time, the senior trustee, Archpriest Kononov, set the condition for the tenant: “upon completion of the rental of the said apartment for the said institution, if the glass roof turns out to be superfluous, you must take at your own expense this roof to be converted into an ordinary one.” A photo in the “visit” format has survived to our time, on the back of which the text in French is printed: “A. Lawrence, B. Morskaya, corner of Kirpichny lane, No. 13, St. Petersburg ”and an autograph dated 1863 was inscribed.

Probably, the portraits made by Lawrence were to the taste of the Petersburgers, things were going well, and soon the photographer decided to move to a more prestigious place. In 1867, the atelier was transferred to Nevsky Prospekt between Malaya Morskaya and Admiralteyskaya Squares to the house of Academician of Architecture G. A. Bosse (Nevsky Prospekt No. 5). For this purpose, a special pavilion was built in the wing of the building. The RGIA preserved the petition of the owner of the house, filed on February 23, 1867 to the board of the 1st District of Communications. "Architect Bosse. Petition. Wishing to arrange a photographic pavilion in the house of the city of Bosse, which consists of the Admiralteiskaya part of the 1st section along Nevsky Prospekt, as shown on the plans under the letter “A”, I have the honor to humbly ask the Board of the 1st district to allow me the above work ... Submit a request and receive a copy from the plan I trust Mr. Alfred Lawrence, by proxy of the State Councilor Harald Ernestovich Bosse. Arthur Bosse. On April 7 of the same year, "the highest approved facade, for the superstructure of the photographic pavilion, on the house of the Architect Bosse" was signed by the vice director of the department of water communications.

From the 1850s until the early 1880s, the dominating light painting technology in photographic practice was the so-called "wet collodion process" by Archer's method, which replaced the daguerreotype. The complexity of the method, which required from the photographer a fair amount of knowledge of chemistry and physics, extensive experience, skill and attention, made photography the lot of professionals who worked mainly in stationary studios. The shooting procedure at first was very difficult and lengthy, it required concentration and patience from both the photographer and the client. Despite the difficulties, according to some experts, up to 95% of the photographic products produced at that time were portraits. The "visit" format was especially popular, and since 1866 - the "office".

The era of wet collodion is characterized by a number of unresolved technical problems. Photographers had to make almost all photographic materials on their own. The shooting had to be done immediately after the preparation of absolutely clean glass plates, while the applied photosensitive layer was still wet (hence the name of the process). After the exposure, it was necessary to chemically process the plate without delay and without a pause between the individual operations. Care had to be taken to ensure that the image that appeared acquired the appropriate saturation, since it was impossible to determine the duration of all phases of the process. Each collodion negative bore traces of individual processing, the details of which were kept secret by the photographers. All the work of that time proceeded empirically through trial and error. In addition, the photographer was dependent on a dark laboratory, which had to be placed in close proximity to the shooting location. Therefore, few dared to go out with the camera "in the open air." When working in open areas, the laboratory had to improvise on the spot - take a dark tent with you or turn a cart into a dark chamber.

However, Petersburg needed a pictorial representation, and Lawrence was one of the first in the capital to take up photography on its streets and squares, combining the experience of the pictorial tradition with the intuitive use of the possibilities of photography. The labor intensity of production made photographs still quite expensive, but in comparison with traditional visual techniques - painting, engraving, lithography, etc. — they were already available to a wider range of customers.

In 1870, Alfred Laurens took part in the regular 14th All-Russian Manufactory Exhibition. Photographs and photographic accessories were exhibited in the seventh section "Subjects in the field of education and art, as applied to industry", in the 39th and 40th grades. As in other departments and classes, "subjects presented in the part of photography" received commendable awards in five categories. Participants were presented for awarding by Expert Committees. S. L. Levitsky, a photographer with a European name, a member of the Paris Photographic Society since 1864, was chosen as an expert in the photographic section of the exhibition in 1870, who had already been elected experts in photography at international and domestic exhibitions more than once. “The goal and the whole future of photography lies in its possible extensive application to the dissemination of true, distinct, but at the same time publicly available images from everything that may be of interest to society in scientific, artistic and industrial terms,” Levitsky prefaced his report at the committee meeting with these words, explaining from what point of view one should look at the presented exhibits. Levitsky outlined the second most relevant area of ​​activity for photographers by moving on to photographs “applied to the removal of views of the insides, monuments of antiquity and the arts.” At the same time, he argued that “this application is of more historical, artistic and, finally, industrial significance than portrait production. The portraitist-photographer works for the most part at home, in conveniently arranged workshops; labor and its costs are paid immediately, while the removal of views, with constant movement from place to place, requires both more reliable methods, and material costs, and often a great loss of time. Making a detailed review of the photographic exposition, Levitsky noted that “Lorenz exhibited a collection of views of St. Petersburg and its environs in a small, public size (50 kopecks per view); by its purity, distinct finality, it does not allow you to wish for anything better. And further, moving on to portraits: “In the works exhibited by Mr. Lawrence, a photographer in St. Petersburg, there are, in addition to the views mentioned above, several portraits that deserve special attention; despite the bold and very effective lighting, Mr. Lawrence did not fall into excessive contrast - the image is full, clear both in strong shadows and in bright places; in general, in the works of Mr. Lawrence, we see a conscientious, careful execution, as we understand a real photograph.

On June 25, the Minister of Finance approved the "List of commendable awards for the All-Russian Manufactory Exhibition of 1870 in St. Petersburg." For "impeccable conscientious performance, both portraits and views," Alfred Lawrence was awarded a silver medal. This meant both public recognition and an increase in prices for the products manufactured by the company. No wonder a few years later, in the already mentioned guidebook, Mikhnevich noted Lawrence's studio among the six "most famous firms." In the same place, Mikhnevich wrote that “in general, all photographs in St. Petersburg. 110, and this art currently has many excellent performers among St. Petersburg photographers. Competition has made photography now accessible to everyone. In mediocre photographs, you can take a dozen cards for 75 kopecks and a ruble; even in the best - it costs no more than 3-4 rubles. The income of Lawrence's studio in the 1870s was calculated up to 15 thousand rubles a year. In St. Petersburg, only court photographers K. I. Bergamasko, S. L. Levitsky and G. I. Denier had higher profits.

The catalog of landscape photographs published by Albert Lawrence includes 106 perspectives, panoramas, palaces and other important buildings, churches, monuments and bridges of St. Petersburg. It also contains 55 views of the "Pearl Necklace" of the northern capital - Peterhof, Tsarskoye Selo and Pavlovsk. The master did not ignore the favorite places of festivities of St. Petersburg residents, photographing 14 scenes in the vicinity of the Black River, Krestovsky and Kamenny Islands. The extensive iconographic heritage of Alfred Lawrence is scattered among numerous public and private collections in Russia and abroad and, as far as we know, has never been considered collectively.

We do not know the year and place of birth of the master who worked in St. Petersburg, nor the year and place of his death. In the 1870s, a new address, Nevsky Prospekt No. 4, appeared on the forms of the Alfred Lawrence photographic workshop. Photos with this address, in addition to the medal of 1870, were decorated with the Persian Order of the Lion and the Sun. According to a study of St. Petersburg portrait studios, conducted by the collector Yu. N. Sergeev and published in the book Photographs for Memory. Photographers of Nevsky Prospekt”, in the 1870-80s, his son Eduard Albertovich Lawrence worked in the company with his father.

That, perhaps, is all that can be said today about the "primary" photographer Alfred Lawrence and his company.

Albert Felisch

At the beginning of 1866, the German land surveyor Albert Felisch, who was in love with photography, decided to radically change his life, choosing both a new profession and a new space for the application of his talents. At the age of 27, a fan of photography arrived from Germany in St. Petersburg, where he opened his own photographic institution in the house 7/36, which is on the corner of Bolshaya Meshchanskaya and Demidov lanes. Soon the settler became convinced that the original plan - to become a successful portrait painter in the imperial capital - did not work. According to contemporary eyewitnesses, in the 1860s, Nevsky Prospekt was a continuous exhibition of photographic portraits placed in the windows of numerous photo studios, which were located here in almost every house. So the fierce competition and the relative remoteness of the new firm from human flows did not at all favor the success of his enterprise. After conducting, as they would say now, marketing research and quickly finding his niche in the photographic business, the young entrepreneur came to the conclusion that it was necessary to part with the cozy aquarium of the stationary pavilion and go outdoors to produce views of the beautiful city and the interiors of its landmark buildings. From the beginning of the second half of the 19th century in St. Petersburg, only two light painters, Giovanni Bianchi and Alfred Lawrence, were consistently engaged in this kind of filming. Bianchi began his unprecedented epic representation of St. Petersburg in 1852, and his large-scale vedutes, depicting the ensembles, palaces and mansions of the St. Petersburg nobility, were designed for a demanding public, and Lawrence, releasing small-sized photographs for sale, made landscape photography publicly available and in mass demand at tourists. Obviously, few of the natives dared to work in these genres, fearing the inevitable difficulties in the then dominant wet collodion process.

Felix's contemporary light-painting technology was strikingly different from photography as we know it today, when everyone, without any hesitation, goes with a camera wherever he pleases. In the era of wet collodion photography, “the production of negatives … was not a pleasure, but hard work. A dark box or a tent, various preparations and liquids, especially when shooting on larger records, forced us to take porters, a wagon for pack animals with us. At each new location, I had to deal with the boring and troublesome setting up of a dark tent, preparing a record, developing in an uncomfortable cramped space, washing dishes, and, finally, dismantling the tent and packing it in order to move to another shooting location. In addition to these quite inevitable inconveniences, there were also various other difficulties, for example, the inability to settle down near the shooting site, lack of water, etc. Nowadays, photographers ... working on wet plates seem to be some kind of martyrs or heroes, and we can only be surprised their selflessness and modesty of demands, because for all their efforts, they were rewarded as a result with an insignificant number of negatives. Indeed, each filming required 1 or 2 hours of time, and only under very favorable conditions and exhausting work, barely half a dozen negatives taken from various localities were obtained per day. In addition, in order to get a good negative on location shooting, the photographer, acting in unpredictable circumstances, had to take care that the plate correctly “perceived the light impression” and be able to develop it right there. “Without this, he will not be able to decide when he develops on the spot whether he has correctly measured the time for filming. This judgment is all the more difficult because there are no template rules applicable to all lighting conditions and air conditions. Having found his path, the enthusiast was not afraid of difficulties, and it soon turned out that "his photographs of various views of St. Petersburg, both simple and stereoscopic, enjoyed well-deserved fame and were the subject of constant sale of art and print shops."

After some time, the conscientiousness with which the master carried out the orders entrusted to him, the elegance and excellent quality of the pictures were recognized not only by buyers, but also in a professional environment. In 1870, Felish took part in two departments of the All-Russian Manufactory Exhibition - chemical, where he presented "chemical preparations used in photography" and photographic, where he exhibited views and stereoscopic images. By decision of the expert committee of the photographic department, approved by the Minister of Finance on June 25, the exhibitor A. Felis was awarded the 5th category “Honorary Review” for photographic work. In addition, Felix became the official photographer of this exhibition and photographed its pavilions and expositions.

The World Illustration magazine informed readers about the photographs of the manufactory exhibition that went on sale: “60 shots for stereoscopes at 30 k. each. 50 large shots in 15-18 inches, 2 p. per piece, produced in large quantities. Large selection of views of St. Petersburg for stereoscope and cards. Complete collection of 150 pictures. Traders are given a big concession. Photographer of the exhibition A. Felish. Specialist for views and interior shots. This year, the workshop was located at a new address - in house number 42 on Bolshaya Morskaya near St. Isaac's Square. The company's annual turnover was 10,000 rubles, it employed 6 employees, and its specialization, according to the announcement, was "Photographic views and stereoscopic images." In the winter of the same year, Felish photographed 20 large paintings by Aivazovsky, and contemporaries ranked the images obtained from them among the best examples of reproductions of their time.

Two years later, in 1872, Russia celebrated the 200th anniversary of the birth of Peter the Great. The main celebrations were held in the capital, and Felix, overcoming technical problems, enthusiastically removed the festive decoration of monuments and buildings associated with the activities of the emperor, and, climbing with his equipment on the roof of the Senate building, captured the most important event - a prayer service on Senate Square, held on 30 May. On the same day, the Polytechnic Exhibition dedicated to the anniversary of Peter I opened in Moscow in all its splendor. It occupied the entire center of Moscow: the Kremlin gardens, the Moskva River embankment along the Kremlin, the square inside the Kremlin and Salt Square on Varvarka. In 62 pavilions of the exhibition, for three months, visitors got acquainted with the exposition, which presented the industrial, agricultural, military, scientific, technical and cultural achievements of the Russian Empire. In one of the Moscow pavilions, as illustrations for the description of the International Horticulture Exhibition, six photographs of Felix in the 24x30 cm format depicting her interiors were exhibited. (The gardening exhibition was held in St. Petersburg in 1869, and he was the only photographer who received the right to shoot on it). The outstanding quality of these photographs impressed the expert commission so much that, despite the absence of the author among the exhibitors of the photographic section, the St. Petersburg master was awarded an award - a large silver medal for photographs. At the same time, “for various photographs in Peterhof and the Imperial Palaces,” the photographer was awarded the Highest Gratitude of the Court of His Imperial Majesty.

The views of St. Petersburg and Peterhof captured by the light painter were put on sale in several versions. The most massive were circulations on letterhead in the formats of the so-called. "cabinet-portrait", "visit" and "stereoscope". Their number is quite significant, more than 300 stories were published in the “cabinets” alone. He published independently and entire souvenir albums with landscape photographs. Samples of such St.Petersburg and Peterhof albums, with the inscription "Photographie und Selbstverlag v. A. Felisch in St.Petersburg" on the cover, are preserved in the National Library of France in excellent condition.

Since 1879, a new period began in the activities of Albert Felisch in the photographic field, inscribed his name in the history of photography as a pioneer of the Russian photographic industry. This year, the indefatigable enthusiast practically started making dry plates, initially with home remedies, and at the end of the year he launched the first batch of dry bromine gelatin plates. A year later, Felish published the first separate brochure in Russian on the emulsion method for photographers, amateurs and tourists, Bromogelatin Method, Its Significance and Application to Photography, which became the first textbook for Russian photographers on the new light painting technology. In the same 1880, in St. Petersburg on Nevsky Prospekt in house No. 52, the “First Russian Factory of Gelatin Emulsions and Plates” by A. Felish was opened, where production took place under the direct supervision of himself and his two sons. “Energetic, knowledgeable, always following all the innovations in the production of records, A. E. Felish gradually expanded his factory and improved production. Soon, professional photographers and amateur photographers who had by that time been born all over Russia were photographing on Felish plates. Knowing the passion of Russians for everything foreign and distrust of everything Russian, one can understand how good Felix's records were if they managed to compete with foreign ones with complete success. Gradually, the factory increased production and by 1887 was producing up to 50,000 dozen records a year, and employed 15 Russian workers. At that time, it was located on Bolshaya Italianskaya Street at 31. Factory products were repeatedly exhibited at photographic exhibitions and received awards for the high quality of photographic plates. In the 1890s, a number of factories were opened in Russia, producing a similar assortment. “Competition began to bring down prices for records, often to the detriment of their qualities. A. E. Felish could not put up with this direction of business and, not wanting to produce cheap, but inevitably bad goods ... in 1896 he closed his factory.

Both sons of Felish were his associates and worked at the family business until it closed. After the death of his father, one of his sons, Ivan, since 1898, worked in a store selling photographic supplies to trusted Joachim Ivanovich Steffen, Russia's largest seller of photographic equipment, equipment and photographic materials. Since 1905, he became the editor-in-chief of the Photographic News magazine. This journal was created on the initiative of N. E. Ermilov and I. A. Felish and was financed by the firm “I. Stephen & Co. Felix was also responsible for the entire economic and administrative part of the publishing business. In the early 1920s (?), Ivan Felish moved to Germany. It is known that in 1925 he worked as the manager of the Berlin trade branch of the Mimosa Joint-Stock Company (Photographic Paper Factory in Dresden) and was authorized by the All-Russian Union of Photographers to subscribe to the Photograph magazine in Berlin (Johannes Felisch, Berlin-Tempelhof, Lindenhof, Marienstrasse , 5). And it is also known that in 1929 Ivan Albertovich Felish was the owner of the photo studio "Foto-Felisch, Berlin, W-8, Taubenstr., 34".

Carl Bulla

Karl Oswald (Karl Karlovich) Bulla was born in Prussia in the province of Leobschutz on February 26, 1855 into a merchant family. Around 1865, parents - Karl Oswald Bulla and mother Anna (née Shefler), together with their ten-year-old son Karl, moved to St. Petersburg and assigned him to work in a firm for the manufacture and sale of photographic accessories. Here, young Bulla began to learn the basics of the profession, to which, as it turned out later, he devoted his whole life.

Perhaps for the first time the epithet "famous" sounded distinctly in the address of the photographer Karl Karlovich Bulla in 1895 in the "Russian photographic magazine". Appendix No. 2 published a photograph of "Forest" with the explanation: "The negative was made by our famous photographer and manufacturer K. K. Bulla. Steingel lens, wide-angle (V series), aperture f/7, self-made plate...”. And further: “Recently, the bromogelatin plates of K. K. Bull’s laboratory have been excellent, and we are extremely sorry that K. K. Bulla closed his laboratory just when the production of plates had already been brought to a certain degree of perfection by him ...”.

He was forty years old in the year of this publication and belonged to the generation born after inventions of light painting. So photography was a common thing for him - his formation in it took place at a time when the miracle of obtaining images “drawn by the sun itself” had already ceased to amaze and had firmly entered the life and consciousness of many people. In 1895, he already had thirty years of experience behind him, as they said then, "from photography." We know very little about this period in the life of Karl Karlovich Bulla, but, undoubtedly, he had to start building a photographic career in a dense competitive environment created by a generation of pioneers born before Photo.

In the second half of the 19th century, such masters as Carl Dauthenday, Giovanni Bianchi, Ivan Alexandrovsky, Sergei Levitsky, Heinrich Denier, William Carrick, Charles Bergamasco, Alfred Laurens, Albert Felix (1837-1908) and other pioneers of photography shone on the metropolitan photographic scene. It was they who, overcoming many technical problems not yet solved by photography, designed lenses and cameras, improved the formulation of processing solutions, wrote the first textbooks, studied themselves and taught others to shoot in various, seemingly impossible in terms of the level of technology, conditions. It was they who won the first gold medals at various exhibitions and competitions, they were the first to receive the titles of "Photographer of the Academy of Arts", "Photographer of Their Imperial Majesties", "Photographer of the Imperial Theaters", etc. In a word, they worked for the glory of light painting, expanding the range of its application from science to art and developing its specific language.

I think, being in such a brilliant environment, Karl Bulla was well aware that the studio of a young photographer could not count on serious success in the capital Petersburg if it was engaged only in portrait photography, and the career of an ordinary portrait photographer, as well as the career of an artist, is unlikely suited him. In the last third of the 19th century, decisive changes took place in the technique of photography - it went through various stages of improvement and simplification, so that by the beginning of the next, 20th century, it would turn into a cheap, mass-produced and fairly easy-to-use means of capturing an image that we know today. . In parallel, the demand for photographic materials and supplies grew, and this ever-increasing demand became a serious business. And Karl Bulla chose this path - a manufacturer and entrepreneur from photography. In 1886, the following advertisement for K. Bulla's photographic laboratory, located at 110 Nevsky Prospekt, appeared in the Photograph magazine: “Specialty: factory production of photographic dry plates. Reshooting plans, drawings, drawings and others. Practical photography lessons. Prices are moderate." While the older generation of romantic photographers, resting on their laurels, gradually faded from the scene, the laboratory boiled "Bull's gelatinous emulsion" and made dry photographic plates, serving a growing army of professionals and amateur photographers, and its owner, closely following the progress in the field of photography and its applications, increased the technical arsenal of his company and looked for new markets. Sometimes ahead of events.

So, requested from the Ministry of the Interior and received in 1886 "permission for the right to produce all kinds of photographic work outside the home, such as: on the streets, apartments and in places in the immediate vicinity of St. Petersburg" could not have serious commercial consequences, because at that time interest in St. Petersburg architecture and its representation in the visual arts has fallen, and the printing industry has not yet learned how to make clichés from photographic impressions. And Karl Karlovich was not one of those who would shoot something "for himself" "for the love of art." The time to use this document will come later, after in 1894 the same ministry will allow "forms of open letters of private production", and even in the standard of the Universal Postal Union. This made it possible for photographers to significantly increase the circulation of images and advertise their business at the international level. Bulla immediately opened a printing house and began to produce postcards in it.

The status of “photographer of the Ministry of the Imperial Court” received in 1896 also could not yet bring serious dividends and did not give any special advantages - many Russian photographers had a similar status, for example, S. L. Levitsky, A. K. Yagelsky, Muscovites I. G. Dyagovichenko, A. I. Mei, etc. So until the change of generations took place, Karl Bulle, making an ascent to the Olympus of Russian fame, had to “gain points” in foreign fields. And he did this with enviable regularity: in 1899 he received a gold medal for evening pictures at the Franco-Russian exhibition of the Red Cross, in 1900 - the cross of the Romanian crown from the king of Romania, in 1901 - the Order of the Star of the Lion and the Sun from the Shah of Persia, in 1902 - a silver medal with a crown "For Civil Merit" from the Prince of Bulgaria, in 1903 - the Cavalier Order of the Italian Crown from the King of Italy.

By the end of the 19th century, printing techniques improved and it became possible to reproduce reproductions from photographs in print simultaneously with text. The incredible circulation of illustrated publications has led to a real revolution in photography and created completely new opportunities for the use of photographic images in public practice. Since 1897, Bulla's photographs began to appear in one of the most popular Russian magazines, Niva, of which he became his "own author" for many years. It was then that Karl Karlovich gained true fame. Moreover, the range of photographic works performed by the masters of his firm was extremely wide by this time. In an advertisement from 1904, after the traditional image of the regalia, the text follows: “Always ready to go and goes by invitation wherever required. He shoots everything, not being embarrassed by the room, everywhere and everywhere, both during the day and at any evening time with his own artificial light. Portraits from the dead, groups of any composition, interior furnishings of rooms, halls, exhibitions, etc. All kinds of architectural objects, both internal and external facades, houses, factories, workshops with workers, cars, railways, monuments, shops, etc. Various scenes and types, photographs from ancient and ancient objects, the opening and consecration of buildings, anniversary celebrations, and more. other. Snapshots of sports of all kinds, from horses, dogs and other animals. We produce in our pavilion: Portraits and groups from life. Enlargement of portraits from business or office cards, in any format. Copying copies from business or cabinet cards, paintings, engravings, drawings and many others. other. Shooting all kinds of technical items for cliches, which can be easily delivered to the pavilion. With photography, various pictures are sold: types, events of the day, sports and much more, which has a diverse interest and demand from magazines, artists, architects, technicians and others. In the metropolitan "Niva" alone in 1903, with the signature "according to photo. K.K. Bulla, the author of Niva”, more than a hundred photographs were published, and there were also “Spark”, “Petersburg Life”, “Capital and Estates”, European magazines.

But he had to harvest the fruits from the field of fame later, after the anniversary year for St. Petersburg in 1903. In 1904, Karl Karlovich Bulla photographed the "first person of the state" - Emperor Nicholas I. Here's what followed: the firm "K.K. Bulla" received permission to film "views of the capital, as well as celebrations in the Highest Presence"; a special certificate from the Main Naval Headquarters, allowing shooting "during maneuvers, reviews, exercises, launching and laying ships and, in general, all events related to marine life"; the certificate of the General Staff of the Military Ministry allowed the company "to make photographic surveys on maneuvers and exercises of the troops of the guard and the St. Petersburg military district." K.K. Bulla became a photographer for the Russian Fire Society, the Imperial Public Library; He was awarded a gold medal on the Anninsky Ribbon, a gold medal "For Diligence", an order of the 1st degree of the Empress Maria Feodorovna's Guardianship of the Deaf and Dumb. Since 1908 - in the merchant class, an honorary citizen (later - a personal nobleman), a new luxurious studio on Nevsky, 54. Further: photographer of the Imperial Russian Red Cross Society, the Office of the St. Petersburg Mayor, many educational institutions; two more orders - French and Swedish « Commendation Sheet” from the Ministry of Trade and Industry at the 1st International Aeronautical Exhibition. In 1910, the photo studio became a supplier of the Court of the King of Serbia, since 1912 - "The Court of Her Imperial Highness Grand Duchess Maria Pavlovna" ... In the same year, the owner again received a "Commendation Sheet" from the Ministry of Trade and Industry at the 2nd photo exhibition of the magazine "Photographic News" ... Do not count everything! The annual income of the company "K.K. Bulla" reached 250,000 rubles.

Both sons of Karl Karlovich Alexander and Victor became professional photographers, and the maestro himself, being at the peak of a brilliantly built career, left Petrograd for Estonia, on the island of Ezel (modern Saaremaa). According to family legends, he built a house there ahead of time, in which his third wife, an Estonian named Christina, was waiting for him. It is said that while living on the island, he photographed the daily life of local residents and taught the art of photography to boys. Here in 1929 he peacefully ended his days. The famous master was buried in the village of Yamaya on a small churchyard near the seashore.

After the departure of Karl Karlovich from Russia, a colossal photographic heritage remained in Petrograd (and not only!) “Based on the Decree of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee and the Council of People’s Commissars of the RSFSR of January 28, 1929, and the Decree of the Presidium of the Leningrad Council of April 29, 1929, negatives began to arrive from the Bull family to the Leningrad Regional Archival Bureau. The transfer of materials lasted until 1938. The archive received more than 130 thousand negatives, of which almost half were created by K. K. Bulla or with his participation.

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Quoted from: Daguerre, Niepce, Talbot - on the centenary of the discovery of photography / Comp. - S.V. Evgenov. M .: 1938. Arago's report in the Chamber of Deputies on July 3, 1839, during the discussion of the bill on the acquisition of the invention by the French government.

Cit. Quoted from: Benjamin V. A work of art in the era of its technical reproducibility. Selected Essays / Under. ed. Yu. A. Healthy. M Ibid

World illustration, 1870. No. 83. S. 544

Photographic News, 1908, no. 7. S. 120

Albert Eduardovich Felish // Photographic Bulletin, 1908, No. 7. S. 168

Joachim Ivanovich Steffen (06.10.1857, Lübeck - 27.10.1910, St. Petersburg) in 1881 moved from Lübeck to Russia and in 1882 opened a shop for photographic accessories in Kazanskaya Street, house No. 13 in St. Petersburg. Later, the owner transferred it to Kazanskaya street to house number 5. In the 1900s. firm "I. Steffen & Co. opened a branch in Moscow, at No. 6 Stoleshnikov Lane. I. I. Steffen was buried at the Volkov Lutheran cemetery in St. Petersburg.

E. Dziuba, V. Zanozina. Karl Karlovich Bulla. Link to: RGIA, f. 1284, op. 58, d. 256, l. 5 in cat. exhibition "Petersburg. 1903 in photographs by K.K. Bulls” / GMISPb. 2003

According to the catalog "Petersburg-Petrograd-Leningrad in postcards 1895-1945", more than 50 stories were published with only St. Petersburg themes by K. Bull.

For comparison: the professional "Russian Photographic Journal" hardly gained a circulation of 1000 copies, and the circulation of "Niva" reached 250,000 copies weekly.

I. N. Bozheryanov. Nevsky Prospekt: ​​1703-1903: Cultural and historical sketch of the life of St. Petersburg for two centuries. St. Petersburg, 1901-1903

E. Dziuba, V. Zanozina. UK. Op. WITH.