Work: Missions Héliographiques

Missions Héliographiques' was a 19th-century project initiated by Inspector General of Historical Monuments Prosper Mérimée in 1851 to photograph landmarks and monuments around France so that they could be restored. The intent was to supplement Monument Historique, a program Mérimée started in 1837 to classify, protect and restore French landmarks. The French rail network was still in its infancy and many of the commissioners had never visited the monuments in their care; photography promised a record of such sites that would be produced more quickly and accurately than the architectural drawings on which they had previously relied. Mérimée hired Edouard Baldus, Hippolyte Bayard, Gustave Le Gray, Henri Le Secq and Auguste Mestral to carry out the photography, with the aim that architect Eugène Viollet-le-Duc could eventually restore them. The five photographers were all members of the fledgling Société Héliographique, the first photographic society. Each was assigned a travel itinerary and detailed list of monuments.

Baldus was sent south and east to photograph the Palace of Fontainebleau, the medieval churches of Lyon and other towns in the Rhône Valley, and the Roman monuments of Provence, including the Pont du Gard, the triumphal arch at Orange, the Maison Carrée in Nîmes, and the amphitheater at Arles.

Gustave Le Gray, already recognized as a leading figure on both the technical and artistic fronts of French photography, was sent southwest, to the famed châteaux of the Loire Valley—Blois, Chambord, Amboise, and Chenonceaux, among others—to the small towns and Romanesque churches along the pilgrimage routes to Santiago de Compostela, and through the Dordogne. Le Gray traveled with Mestral and photographed sites on his old friend and protégé’s list, including the fortified town of Carcassonne (not yet “restored” by Viollet-le-Duc), Albi, Perpignan, Le Puy, Clermont-Ferrand, and other sites in south-central and central France. On occasion, the two worked hand-in-hand, for a few photographs are signed by both photographers.  

Henri Le Secq was sent north and east to the great Gothic cathedrals of Reims, Laon, Troyes, and Strasbourg, among others.

Hippolyte Bayard, the only one of the five to have worked with glass—rather than paper—negatives (and thus, the only one whose negatives no longer survive), was sent west to towns in Brittany and Normandy, including Caen, Bayeux, and Rouen.

An announcement of the project was made in La Lumière, the official organ of the Société Héliographique in its June 29th issue with the itineraries published soon afterwards. After the five photographers had completed their tasks in the summer and autumn of 1851, they returned to Paris with portfolios of prints and negatives. There was much fanfare upon their return, but the photos were immediately retrieved and locked in a drawer. Bayard’s glass negatives are yet to be found.

The Mission Heliographique was the first state-sponsored, photographic survey of architecture. Yet the visionary parent society, the Societe Heliographique, only survived for less than three years, from 1851-1853. The expedition’s failure as an artistic polemic to save architecture was perhaps – ironically – due to its success. According to Naomi Rosenblum, in “Documentation: Landscape and Architecture,” The photographers’ skill and artistry helped doom the project. The beautifully composed images of decaying buildings made them appear in a positive light, which did little to encourage the restoration work for which the Mission Heliographique had originally embarked. Many of the buildings whose images were taken by the five photographers no longer exist due to the urban renewal efforts of Napoleon III under the architectural supervision of Baron Georges-Eugène Haussmann.

References

Daniel, M. (2016). Mission Héliographique, 1851 | Essay | Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History | The Metropolitan Museum of Art. [online] The Met’s Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History. Available at: http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/heli/hd_heli.htm [Accessed 7 Jul. 2016].

H, J. (2009). Mission Heliographique - The Patrimony of Paris in Photos. [online] Bearings. Available at: http://www.terrastories.com/bearings/mission-heliographique-the-patrimony-of-paris-in-photos [Accessed 7 Jul. 2016].

Wikipedia. (2016). Missions Héliographiques. [online] Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Missions_H%C3%A9liographiques [Accessed 7 Jul. 2016].