Jean Laurent or, in Spanish, Juan Laurent Minier; sometimes simply J. Laurent (23 July 1816,
Garchizy
Garchizy () is a commune in the Nièvre department in central France. Garchizy station has rail connections to Nevers and Cosne-sur-Loire.
Demographics
See also
* Communes of the Nièvre department
The following is a list of the 309 comm ...
– 24 November 1886,
Madrid
Madrid ( , ) is the capital and most populous city of Spain. The city has almost 3.4 million inhabitants and a metropolitan area population of approximately 6.7 million. It is the second-largest city in the European Union (EU), and ...
) was a French photographer who mostly worked in Spain.
Biography
He first moved to Spain in 1843, and settled in Madrid. Until 1855, he worked as a box and paper maker, creating luxurious boxes for pastries and
marbled paper
Paper marbling is a method of aqueous surface design, which can produce patterns similar to smooth marble or other kinds of stone. The patterns are the result of color floated on either plain water or a viscous solution known as size, and then ca ...
for book bindings.
That year, he became interested in photography from having done work coloring photographs. The following year, he was able to open a studio on the Carrera de San Jerónimo, near the
Congress of Deputies
The Congress of Deputies ( es, link=no, Congreso de los Diputados, italic=unset) is the lower house of the Cortes Generales, Spain's legislative branch. The Congress meets in the Palacio de las Cortes, Madrid, Palace of the Parliament () in Ma ...
, the same location where the British photographer,
Charles Clifford, had set up his first studio.
![Madrid vista interior de la nueva plaza de toros](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e4/Madrid_vista_interior_de_la_nueva_plaza_de_toros.jpg)
In 1866, together with the Spanish photographer , he patented which produced positives, rather than the
negatives produced by the
albumen print
The albumen print, also called albumen silver print, was published in January 1847 by Louis Désiré Blanquart-Evrard, and was the first commercially exploitable method of producing a photographic print on a paper base from a negative. It us ...
process. The paper enjoyed some popularity in Spain and France, but was never widely used.
He could boast of the title "Fotógrafo de Su Majestad la Reina" (The Queen's Photographer) from 1861 to 1868.
That same year, he opened a store in Paris, devoted exclusively to selling his photographs of Spain and Portugal.
One unusual product produced by his company were fans printed with photographs (especially bullfighting scenes) that would unfold like a mosaic.
In 1874, he was commissioned by
Baron Émile d’Erlanger to take photographs of the
Black Paintings
The ''Black Paintings'' (Spanish: ''Pinturas negras'') is the name given to a group of 14 paintings by Francisco Goya from the later years of his life, likely between 1819 and 1823. They portray intense, haunting themes, reflective of both his ...
by
Francisco de Goya
Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes (; ; 30 March 174616 April 1828) was a Spanish romantic painter and printmaker. He is considered the most important Spanish artist of the late 18th and early 19th centuries. His paintings, drawings, and ...
at the
Quinta del Sordo. The photographs were later used as a guide by the artist,
Salvador Martínez Cubells
Salvador Martínez Cubells (9 November 1845 – 21 January 1914) was a Spanish painter and art restorer ( Paintings conservator), who specialized in history painting and Costumbrismo.
Biography
He was born in Valencia, and received his fi ...
, to remove the paintings and restore them for public display. This led to Laurent becoming the official photographer for the
Museo del Prado
The Prado Museum ( ; ), officially known as Museo Nacional del Prado, is the main Spanish national art museum, located in central Madrid. It is widely considered to house one of the world's finest collections of European art, dating from the ...
, in 1879.
Laurent's son-in-law, Alfonso Roswag Nogier (1833–1900), became his principal partner and carried on the firm's business after Laurent's retirement in 1881.
He was buried at
Cementerio de la Almudena
The ''Cementerio de Nuestra Señora de La Almudena'' ( en, Our Lady of Almudena Cemetery), former ''Necrópolis del Este'' (East cemetery) is a cemetery in Madrid, Spain. It is the largest in Madrid and one of the largest in Western Europe. The nu ...
. After his death, the archive was acquired by the French photographer Joseph Jean Marie Lacoste Borde (1872-c.1930). When he was called to serve in the war in 1915, the collection was purchased by Joana Roig Villalonga (1877–1941), a
Mallorcan
Mallorca, or Majorca, is the largest island in the Balearic Islands, which are part of Spain and located in the Mediterranean.
The capital of the island, Palma, is also the capital of the autonomous community of the Balearic Islands. The Bale ...
, who continued to issue images under the name "Casa Laurent" until the archive was bought again, this time by another photographer, , in 1930.
After his death in 1975, the collection was acquired by the Spanish government. The "
Instituto del Patrimonio Cultural de España" has archived over 12,000 images created by Laurent and his company. The
National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C. houses a collection of nearly 700
albumen prints made from Jean Laurent's photographs, many of which have been digitized.
Gallery of images
File:Jean Laurent-Caricature.png, Caricature of Laurent from Aubert (1862)
File:Juan Laurent Helmet.jpg, ''Helmet with Gorget of Philip III, Made in Pamplona'', albumen photograph by Juan Laurent, 1863–1868
File:Juan Laurent Goya.jpg, ''A Walk in Andalusia'' (tapestry after cartoon by Francisco de Goya), albumen photograph by Juan Laurent, 1875–1879
File:Torre Nueva, Zaragoza, VN-03331 P.jpg, Zaragoza
Zaragoza, also known in English as Saragossa,''Encyclopædia Britannica'"Zaragoza (conventional Saragossa)" is the capital city of the Zaragoza Province and of the autonomous community of Aragon, Spain. It lies by the Ebro river and its tributari ...
, '' Torre Nueva'' (c. 1875). This tower was demolished in 1892–1893. It was a clock tower, built of brick in the Mudéjar
Mudéjar ( , also , , ca, mudèjar , ; from ar, مدجن, mudajjan, subjugated; tamed; domesticated) refers to the group of Muslims who remained in Iberia in the late medieval period despite the Christian reconquest. It is also a term for ...
style in the early sixteenth century
File:Carrito -Laboratorio de Laurent.jpg, Carriage laboratory by J. Laurent, in Valladolid
Valladolid () is a Municipalities of Spain, municipality in Spain and the primary seat of government and de facto capital of the Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Castile and León. It is also the capital of the province o ...
, Spain, in the year 1872. ''Fototeca del Instituto del Patrimonio Cultural de España''.
File:Sevilla Cathedral by Juan Laurent.jpg, Sevilla Cathedral by Juan Laurent, c. 1866
Department of Image Collections
National Gallery of Art Library, Washington, DC
File:Alhambra by Juan Laurent.jpg, Mullioned windows of the Hall of the Two Sisters, Alhambra, Granada by Juan Laurent, c. 1874
National Gallery of Art Library, Washington, DC
File:Arc de Berà by Juan Laurent.jpg, Arc de Berà, Tarragona, Spain, photograph by Juan Laurent, 1866-1867
National Gallery of Art Library, Washington, DC
References
Exhibition Catalogues
* ''Las fotografías valencianas de J. Laurent'', Valencia, Ayuntamiento de Valencia, 2003.
* ''Jean Laurent en el Museo Municipal de Madrid. Retratos. Artistas plásticos'', cat. Purificación Nájera Colino, Madrid, Museo Municipal de Madrid, 2005. Tomo I. .
* ''La Casa Laurent y Guadalajara. Fotografías, 1862–1902'', Guadalajara, Diputación Provincial, 2007.
* ''La Andalucía del siglo XIX en las fotografías de J. Laurent y Cía.'', Almería, Junta de Andalucía, 1999.
* ''Un fotógrafo francés en la España del siglo XIX: J. Laurent: Un photographe français dans l'Espagne du XIXème siècle'', Madrid, Ministerio de Educación y Cultura, Caja de Madrid, 1996.
* ''J. Laurent y Cía en Aragón. Fotografías, 1861–1877'', Zaragoza, Diputación Provincial de Zaragoza, 1997.
* ''Obras Públicas de España. Fotografías de J. Laurent, 1858–1870'', Ciudad Real, Universidad de Castilla-La Mancha, 2003.
Collections
Honoring Juan Laurent on His 200th Birthday (2016)
Laurent & Co.a history @ the Museo del Prado
Works by Laurent@ the Institut Nationale d'Histoire de l'Art. (INHA)
Works by Laurent@ the Biblioteca Digital Hispánica
@ the Instituto del Patrimonio Cultural de España (IPCE)
Toledo en las Fotografías de J.Laurentby Carlos Magariños Laguía (Masters Thesis)
Álbum de Toledo (1865) Archivo Municipal
{{DEFAULTSORT:Laurent, Jean
1816 births
1886 deaths
Spanish photographers
French emigrants to Spain
People from Nièvre
French photographers
Landscape photographers