The château de l'Aile in Vevey, 1846-1850, by J.-P. Girault de Prangey. Musée gruérien.
An exceptional exhibition
The SILVER MIRRORS exhibition will take you on an extraordinary voyage to the beginnings of photography. In 1839 the French painter Daguerre invented the process which became his namesake – the daguerreotype. He succeeded in capturing reality in the shimmering reflections of a silver coated copper plate.
The French photographer Joseph-Philibert Girault de Prangey travelled extensively in Europe and the Near East between 1841 and 1850, producing almost a thousand daguerreotypes on the way.
The Musée gruérien in Bulle (Switzerland) recently rediscovered and preserved a collection of 61 daguerreotypes by this talented pioneer showing views of Basel, the Jura, Bern and its highlands, Vevey, the Tête-Noire passage in the Valais region, the Mont-Dore ruins in Auvergne and the Mer-de-Glace in Chamonix.
SILVER MIRRORS highlights these works, together with 17 of Girault de Prangey’s images of Paris and the East Mediterranean - Athens, Istanbul, Izmir, Lebanon, Jerusalem and Cairo (National Library of France). These daguerreotypes are among the earliest surviving photographs.
They are presented alongside original watercolours by Girault de Prangey and lithographs which were executed using his daguerreotypes as models. Girault de Prangey did not in fact consider photography as an end in itself, but as a means to other ends: erudite publications and collections of engravings.
Entrance to the Museum and the exhibition 8 CHF. Programme of activities in French. Guided tours in French, German or English upon request.
Musée gruérien
Rue de la Condémine 25
1630 Bulle
T. ++41 (0)26 916 10 10
e-mail
Wo was Girault de Prangey?
The book
The museum
Also in Bulle:
Christmas market
Gruyère region Museums
Deutsch
Français
|
