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Moulin, Views of Algeria
93.R.24  
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Collection Details
 
Table of contents What's This?
  • Descriptive Summary
  • Biographical/Historical Note
  • Administrative Information
  • Scope and Content of Collection
  • Indexing Terms

  • Descriptive Summary

    Title: Félix Moulin views of Algeria
    Date (inclusive): 1856-1857
    Number: 93.R.24
    Creator/Collector: Moulin, Félix Jacques
    Physical Description: 14 photographic prints
    Repository:
    The Getty Research Institute
    Special Collections
    1200 Getty Center Drive, Suite 1100
    Los Angeles 90049-1688
    Business Number: (310) 440-7390
    Fax Number: (310) 440-7780
    reference@getty.edu
    URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10020/askref
    (310) 440-7390
    Abstract: The collection comprises 14 photographs by Félix Jacques Moulin of the three nineteenth-century northern Algerian provinces of Algiers, Constantine, and Oran which he toured in 1856 and 1857.
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    Language: Collection material is in French.

    Biographical/Historical Note

    The French photographer, Félix-Jacques-Antoine Moulin was born in 1802. Little is known regarding his training as a photographer, but by 1849 Moulin was selling daguerreotypes of nudes from his Paris studio at 31 bis rue du Faubourg Montmartre. Purportedly created as academy or nude studies for use by artists, Moulin's images seemed to have had a wider audience and his sitters were often teenage girls. In 1851, his premises along with those of Jules Malacrida, an optician and dealer, and Mme. veuve René, another daguerreotypist, were raided. The three were tried together for the possession and sale of "obscene objects" in a closed-door session of the Cour d'assises de la Seine. Moulin was sentenced to a month in prison and fined 100 francs. After his release Moulin reopened his studio using another entrance that went through 23, rue Richer. Throughout his career Moulin continued to produce and exhibit female nudes, protercting himself by placing copies of them on legal deposit at the Bibliothèque Impériale, Paris.
    Moulin's photographic output also included portraits, genre subjects, scenic views, and views of monuments. He also printed the work of other photographers, and in 1856 acquired the rights to Roger Fenton's photographs of the Crimean War.
    In March 1856, Moulin made an eighteen-month trip to Algeria where he traveled across the provinces of Oran, Algiers, and Constantine. Carrying a letter of introduction from the French Minister of War to help facilitate travel in the country, and accompanied by Alexandre Quinet, a distant relative, Moulin used modestly-sized collodion glass negatives to produce the first extensive body of photographs of Algeria. He recorded the Algerian landscape, urban views, ancient sites, and the recent transformations to the country undertaken by the French, as well as Algeria's diverse indigenous population.
    Moulin returned to Paris with more than 450 negatives, 300 of which he published in three volumes entitled L'Algérie photographiée (1858). A further edition comprising 448 photographs and eight panoramas and for which no extant copies have been located was apparently published in 1859. Additionally, extensive excerpts from his letters from Algeria were published in La Lumière and some of his photographs were reproduced as engravings in L'Illustration in 1858.
    Having found favor with Napoléon III, as Moulin noted in his prospectus for the 1858 publication ("Cette publication destinée à populariser l'Algérie, a été accueillie avec faveur par S. M. Napoléon III, qui a bien voulu en accepter la dédicace") Moulin's photographs helped to consolidate the territory in the French colonial imagination. The newly created Ministry of Algeria under the emperor's cousin, Prince Napoléon-Jérôme, fostered further interest in Moulin's suite of photographs.
    After 1858, Moulin continued to exhibit his photographs, but produced little new work. In 1862, he announced his retirement and put his studio up for sale. He died around 1875.
    Sources consulted:
    ______. "Félix-Jacques-Antoine Moulin (1802 - après 1875)." http://expositions.bnf.fr/napol/grand/057.htm
    Donald Rosenthal, "Moulin, Félix-Jacques-Antoine," In: John Hannavay, editor. Encyclopedia of Nineteenth-century Photography. United Kingdom: Taylor & Francis Group, 2008, vol. II, p.945-946.

    Administrative Information

    Access

    Open for use by qualified researchers.

    Publication Rights

    Preferred Citation

    Félix Moulin views of Algeria, 1856-1857, Getty Research Institute, Research Library, Accession no. 93.R.24
    http://hdl.handle.net/10020/cifa93r24

    Acquisition Information

    Acquired in 1993.

    Processing History

    Processed and cataloged by Beth Ann Guynn; finding aid encoded by Holly Larson with grant funding from the Council on Library and Information Resources (CLIR). Finding aid revised by Guynn in 2021.

    Digitized Material

    The collection was digitized by the repository and the images are available online:
    http://hdl.handle.net/10020/93r24

    Scope and Content of Collection

    The collection includes mounted albumen photographs from the three northern Algerian provinces of Algiers, Constantine, and Oran which Moulin toured in 1856-1857. The photographs in this collection were most likely printed in the 1860s.
    The lone image from the province of Algiers is a view of Kbur er Roumia (Kbor er Roumia; also known as the Royal Mausoleum of Mauretania or Tomb of the Christian Woman), the mausoleum built near Tipasa in 3 BC by Juba II, the last King of Numidia, and his wife, Cleopatra Selene II. It was one of the first sites Moulin visited. Images from the province of Constantine include: four photographs of the oasis of Biskra, including one of the remains of the twelfth-century mosque of Sidi ben Fedhal and one of the ruins of the ancient casbah; a view of the oasis of El Kantara; a view of the city of Miliana; and three photographs of the city of Constantine, two of which show the city as it is situated on the dramatic gorges of the Rummel river, and one depicting the lower gallery of the palace of Ahmed Bey (Ahmed Bey ben Mohamed Chérif), the last bey of Constantine. There are two photographs of medieval ruins in Tlemcen, Oran: one of the Aghadir Gate, and one of the Djemma El-Afra. There are also two photographs of unidentified locales, one showing an encampment of a desert tribe, and one of a village showing signs of recent construction and a large palm grove on its outskirts.
    Printed labels in French with identification and numbers are affixed to the lower right corner of most mounts. Unless otherwise noted these have been used as image titles.

    Arrangement

    Arranged in a single series: Series I. Félix Moulin views of Algeria, 1856-1857.

    Indexing Terms

    Subjects - Places

    Oran (Algeria) -- Description and travel
    Algeria -- Description and travel
    Constantine (Algeria) -- Description and travel
    Algiers (Algeria) -- Description and travel

    Genres and Forms of Material

    Albumen prints -- Algeria -- 19th century

    Contributors

    Moulin, Félix Jacques