An album of photographs taken by a wealthy young Frenchman in India in 1849 and 1850 will be sold by auction house Bonhams on 19 March for an estimated £40,000 to £60,000.
Alexis De La Grange’s album includes 49 architectural views, most of which are Mughal, taken in northern India.
The albumen prints are mounted one per page, the images typically 180mm x 218mm. or slightly smaller, bound in red morocco with Photographies de l'inde Anglaise in gilt on the upper cover.
Born to an aristocratic French family in 1825, de la Grange embarked upon a two-year trip to India, Ceylon, Java, Malaysia and Singapore in 1849.
Equipped with a camera, taken for the purposes of amusement rather than reportage, it is believed that de la Grange took only 63 photographs during his trip and, by default, his photographic career.
Of the existing images known to be by him, the subject matter does not extend beyond Indian architecture; the whereabouts of any images he may have taken during his first four months in Ceylon, Java, Malaysia and Singapore are unknown.
With photography (and travel photography particularly) still in its infancy, de la Grange's images presented in the album predate all of the pioneering masters of travel photography.
This album cements de la Grange’s position as the unsung hero in the development of travel photography as we know it today.
In 1851 de la Grange returned to France where he is believed to have assembled two albums, both entitled Photographies de l'inde Anglaise, of which this is one.
Francesca Spickernell of Bonhams Book, Map, Manuscript and Historical Photography Department, says: ‘The wonderful and rare thing about this album is that it presents to us some of the first impressions of India by a European.
‘De la Grange’s technical achievements were remarkable for the mid nineteenth century; the quality of these prints is just astounding. This album is of great historical importance.’
No comments:
Post a Comment