Finding aid for Félix Moulin views of Algeria, 1856-1857

Beth Guynn


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


 

Series I. Félix Moulin views of Algeria, 1856-1857

Arrangement

No discernible original order; arranged by cataloger. Arranged by province, then site.
box 1

Province of Algeria

box 1

93.R.24-1 Kobeur Roumïa, tombeau de la Chrétienne,

Scope and Content Note

Caption continues: Sépulture des rois de Mauritanie sur le bord de la mer. Entre Sidi Ferruch et Tipaza. No. 121.
In pencil in upper left image: 21.
box 1

Province of Constantine

box 1

93.R.24-2 El Kantara: Oasis d'El Kantara, vue prise du Dar-Diaf, Sahara

Scope and Content Note

Numbered in pencil in upper right corner of image: 19.
box 1

Biskra

box 1

93.R.24-3 Palmiers, oasis de Biskra, Sahara

Scope and Content Note

Numbered on label: no. 257.
box 1

93.R.24-4 Halte de chameaux dans le désert, oasis de Biskra, Sahara

Scope and Content Note

In pencil in upper right image: 13.
box 1

93.R.24-5 Sidi ben Fedhal, mosquée du 12me siècle, oasis du vieux Biskra, Sahara

Scope and Content Note

Numbered on label: 273.
box 1

93.R.24-6 La casbah, oasis du vieux Biskra, Sahara

Scope and Content Note

Numbered in pencil in upper right corner of image: 7.
box 1

93.R.24-7 Milianah: Vue générale de Milianah

box 1

Constantine

box 1

93.R.24-8 Constantine et le ravin

Scope and Content Note

Numbered in pencil in upper right corner of image: 18.
box 1

93.R.24-9 Constantine: Vue prise du Bardo

Scope and Content Note

Numbered in pencil in upper right corner of image: 3.
box 1

93.R.24-10 Galerie Basse, du palais de Constantine

Scope and Content Note

Numbered in pencil in lower left corner of image: 8.
box 1

Province of Oran

box 1

Tlemçin

box 1

93.R.24-11 Porte d'Aghadir, Tlemcen

Scope and Content Note

Numbered on label: 394[?]. Numbered in pencil in upper right corner of image: 29.
box 1

93.R.24-12 Djemma El-Afra, Tlemcen

Scope and Content Note

Numbered in pencil in upper right corner of image: 14.
box 1

Unidentified sites

box 1

93.R.24-13 Tribu dans la desert

Scope and Content Note

Title from annotation written in pencil in lower right corner of mount.
box 1

93.R.24-14 [View of a Village with a Palm Grove]

Scope and Content Note

Numbered in lower left corner of negative: N. 66.