Alphonse Poitevin · c. 1855
General View of the Gouhenans Salt Works
- Year
- c. 1855
- Original process
- Photographic negative (Poitevin process)
- Held at
- Bibliothèque nationale de France
Key facts
- Edition
- Signed and numbered limited edition
- Authenticity
- Official certificate of authenticity
- Chemistry
- Non-toxic process (Vision Picturale recipes)
- Year
- c. 1855
- Original held at
- Bibliothèque nationale de France
- Public domain
- Since 1953 (CPI L.123-1)
- Printer
- Maison Picturale — Paris 20e studio
- Lead time
- Hand-made · 4 to 8 weeks
Maison Picturale reinterpretation in carbon transfer
About this work
Panoramic view of the industrial complex of the Gouhenans salt works in Haute-Saône, where Louis-Alphonse Poitevin (1819-1882) served as engineering director from 1851 to 1855 — the very period during which he developed the colloid sensitisation experiments that led, in 1855, to his three foundational patents on gum bichromate, the carbon process and photolithography. Trained at the École Centrale des Arts et Manufactures in Paris (class of 1843), Poitevin pursued in parallel an industrial career (salt works of Dieuze, Montmorot, Gouhenans; glassworks of Ahun-les-Mines and Folembray) and a photographic research practice that earned him the Duc de Luynes Prize of the Société française de photographie in 1862 and made him Chevalier de la Légion d'honneur on 24 January 1863. This wide view, held today at the Bibliothèque nationale de France (Gallica), is one of two surviving photographic plates by Poitevin documenting Gouhenans (alongside the courtyard view) — a self-portrait of the chemist's industrial environment at the exact threshold of his three inventions, and a rare specimen of 1850s industrial topography seen through the eyes of its director-engineer. The plate also belongs to the larger corpus of test prints Poitevin produced to characterise his procédés, photographing the locations and monuments he had access to during his industrial assignments and travels. At Maison Picturale, a panoramic industrial view of this nature can be reinterpreted as a contemporary carbon transfer print in the Noir Musée range (deep pigmented gelatin blacks) or as an Aquaprint gum bichromate using the non-toxic Vision Picturale reformulation — a direct homage to the inventor of the very process.
Reference file : Gallica BnF (Public Domain)
Procédé Transposition
Each Maison Picturale print is a material reinterpretation of the image. Three readings of the same work — the original, its closest transposition, and a creative transposition into another procédé.
Multi-tone carbon transfer — the most permanent material in all of photography. Contemporary reinvention of the 1855 Poitevin procédé.
MP procédé — reformulated non-toxic chemistry, signed by Tristan Sidem.
View the procédéHistory of the process
Le procédé charbon est inventé en 1864 par Joseph Wilson Swan, chimiste et inventeur britannique également connu pour ses travaux sur la lampe à incandescence. Il présente le procédé devant la Royal Photographic Society de Londres la même année, breveté sous le nom de Carbon Process. Le principe : une gélatine pigmentée durcie par exposition UV à travers un négatif, puis transférée sur un papier final.
Très rapidement, le charbon devient le procédé de référence des éditeurs photographiques sérieux. Les héliographes des frères Lumière à Lyon, l'Autotype Company à Londres et la maison Braun à Dornach en font leur procédé industriel pour la reproduction d'œuvres d'art destinées aux musées. Les épreuves charbon de la fin XIXe conservées au Musée d'Orsay, à la George Eastman House de Rochester et au Metropolitan Museum of Art présentent encore aujourd'hui leur densité maximale intacte.
Our approach
Le tirage charbon Maison Picturale est une pièce unique réalisée à la main par les artisans tireurs de l'atelier 1 Passage Dagorno, Tristan Sidem et Raphaël Lebas de Lacour. Chaque épreuve charbon demande plusieurs jours de travail : préparation de la gélatine pigmentée, exposition UV, transfert sur papier final, séchage contrôlé. C'est un procédé strictement muséal, destiné aux collectionneurs sérieux et aux institutions.
Notre papier aquarelle satiné 100 % coton 640 g/m² est particulièrement adapté au charbon : son grammage soutient le transfert de gélatine pigmentée sans déformation, et sa surface satinée révèle pleinement le léger bas-relief signature du procédé en lumière rasante. Ce papier de conservation, sans azurants optiques, garantit la pérennité plurisééculaire de l'œuvre.
Inside our studio
1 Passage Dagorno, Paris 20e. Each print is hand-crafted by Tristan Sidem and Raphaël Lebas de Lacour, using Vision Picturale's reformulated non-toxic chemistry. Limited edition, signed and numbered.
Commission this print
- Hand-printed and signed by Tristan Sidem & Raphaël Lebas de Lacour
- Reformulated non-toxic chemistry (Vision Picturale recipes)
- Limited edition, numbered, certificate of authenticity
- 1 Passage Dagorno studio, Paris 20e
- Delivery 3 to 5 weeks · ships worldwide from France
Available formats
- 30 × 40 cmFrom 280€
- 40 × 50 cmFrom 420€
- 50 × 70 cmFrom 680€
- 70 × 100 cmFrom 1180€
- Custom sizeFrom 1850€
Indicative pricing — the exact rate depends on the chosen procédé, support and finish.
Contemporary print after a work in the public domain (CPI L.123-1, 70 years post-mortem). Hand-crafted reinterpretation by Maison Picturale's master printers — this is not an original vintage by the master. The mention 'after [Master]' is systematic on the print and on the certificate of authenticity.
