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Album de vistas y costumbres
2016.R.39
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Title: Album de vistas y costumbres de la provincia de Buenos Aires
Date (inclusive): 1844-1878
Number: 2016.R.39
Creator/Collector:
Ford, Francis Clare,
1828-1899
Physical Description:
1.5 Linear Feet
(1 box)
Repository:
The Getty Research Institute
Special Collections
1200 Getty Center Drive, Suite 1100
Los Angeles 90049-1688
reference@getty.edu
URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10020/askref
(310) 440-7390
Abstract: An album containing 77 photographs and
20 pencil tracings, compiled by the British diplomat Francis Clare Ford during his first
posting to Buenos Aires in 1866. Included among the photographs are three joined panoramas
of the city; views of the city's monuments and buildings; scenic views of the surrounding
pampas and genre scenes depicting life on the pampas; and portraits of gauchos and
indigenous peoples. There are also 20 sheets of pencil tracings made from León Palliere's
depictions of life in the Argentine countryside taken from his Album Palliere, escenas
americanas.
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Language: Collection material is in Spanish; Castilian with some French and English
Biographical / Historical Note
Sir Francis Clare Ford (1828–1899) was an English career diplomat who was posted throughout
Europe, as well as to Washington, DC, and South America. He was secretary of legation in
Buenos Aires from 1865 to 1866 during Argentina's war with Uruguay. After several missions
in Europe and North America he returned to Argentina in 1878 as envoy-extraordinary and
minister-plenipotentiary tasked with the responsibility for negotiating renewed
British-Uruguayan diplomatic ties, the successful conclusion of which led to his appointment
as British minister in both Buenos Aires and Montevideo. After an appointment to Brazil in
1879 Ford returned to Europe for the remainder of his career.
Sources consulted:
Priamo, Luis [idea y selección de fotografías],
Buenos Aires, ciudad y campaña
1860-1870 / fotografías de Esteban Gonnet, Benito Panunzi y otros
. Buenos Aires:
Fundación Antorchas, 2000.
Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Thomas Seccombe, rev. H. C. G.
Matthew. "Ford, Sir (Francis) Clare, (1828–1899), diplomatist,"
http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/9858.
Open for use by qualified researchers.
Contact
Library Reproductions and Permissions .
Album de vistas y costumbres de la provincia de Buenos Aires, 1844-1878, The Getty Research
Institute, Los Angeles, Accession no. 2016.R.39.
http://hdl.handle.net/10020/cifa2016r39
Immediate Source of Acqusition
Acquired in 2016.
Processed, cataloged and finding aid written by Beth Ann Guynn in 2017.
The collection was digitized in 2017 and the images are available online:
http://hdl.handle.net/10020/2016r39
Scope and Content of Collection
Album de vistas y costumbres de la provincia de Buenos Aires, which contains
77 photographs and 20 pencil tracings, was compiled by Francis Clare Ford during his first
posting to Buenos Aires in 1866. Included among the photographs are three joined panoramas
of the city (two four-part panoramas and one three-part panorama); views of the city's
monuments and buildings; scenic views of the surrounding pampas; genre scenes depicting life
on the pampas; and portraits of gauchos and indigenous peoples. Gaucho life is also
represented by three compositions of gaucho gear and trappings. Indigenous groups
represented include Patagonians, Tehuelches, and Tobas. Some of the sitters are known,
including the Tehuelche chief, Casimiro Biguá, his son, Sam Slick, and daughter, Juanita
Biguá; as well as Utrac, son of the Patagonian chief Inacayal. Images of flora and fauna
include a photograph of the three guanachos Ford sent to Lord Clarendon in 1866, and views
of ombú trees (phytolacca dioica), enormous evergreens native to the pampa. Four small
photographs were taking at the Estancia Collins in Uruguay during an 1866 hunting trip.
Many of the photographs in the album are by Esteban Gonnet. Other photographs among those
currently designated "photographer unknown," may be by Benito Panunzi, although none have
yet to have been positively identified as such. Attributions and dates are derived from Luis
Priamo,
Buenos Aires, ciudad y campaña 1860-1870 / fotografías de Esteban Gonnet,
Benito Panunzi y otros
(Buenos Aires: Fundación Antorchas, 2000), and are noted as
such in the scope and contents note for the individual photograph.
Near the beginning of the album are two cabinet card portraits, one of Utrac by an
unidentified photographer, and the other of two indigenous women and their three children by
Cézar Bizioli. These appear to have been added to the album at a later date, presumably
during Ford's second posting to Buenos Aires in 1878.
Nine photographs are reproductions of lithographs of León Palliere's depictions of life in
the Argentine countryside from his
Album Palliere, escenas americanas. There
are also 20 sheets of pencil tracings, most likely made by Ford, from Palliere's images. In
some cases the tracings are juxtaposed in the album with photographs of a similar nature. A
few of the sheets of tracings are composites of numerous figures from Palliere's
lithographs.
Included at the end of the album are six 1866 banknotes from the Case de Moneda, Buenos
Aires and one banknote from 1844. These are followed by a newspaper clipping containing the
text of an 1869 letter (also presumably added after the album was initially compiled),
regarding Argentine inflation written by Edward F. Davison, Consul General of the Argentine
Republic, to George S. Boutwell, Secretary of the US Treasury.
The album is bound in full brown morocco leather with a gilt-stamped title and border on
the front cover, gilt edges and marbled end papers. An engraved bookplate on the first leaf,
with a coat-of-arms surrounded by a frame bearing the motto "Que sera sera," is inscribed:
Francis Clare Ford / Buenos Aires / 1866. Many mounts bear annotations penciled in English,
Spanish or French; some are dated.
The collection is arranged in a single series:
Series I: Album de vistas y costumbres
de la provincia de Buenos Aires, 1844-1878.
Panunzi, Benito
Bizioli, Cézar
Gonnet, Esteban,
1830-1868
Palliere, León,
1823-1887
Gauchos -- Portraits
Toba Indians -- Portraits
Tehuelche Indians -- Portraits
Patagonians -- Portraits
Indigenous peoples -- Argentina
Indians of South America -- Argentina
Buenos Aires (Argentina) -- Buildings, structures, etc.
Buenos Aires (Argentina : Province) -- Description and
travel
Buenos Aires (Argentina) -- Description and travel
Argentina -- Social life and customs
Album Palliere, escenas americanas
Photographs, Original
Tracings (drawings) -- Argentina -- 19th century
Reproductions -- Argentina -- 19th century
Photograph albums -- 19th century
Paper money -- Argentina -- 19th century
Panoramas -- Argentina -- 19th century
Group portraits -- Argentina -- 19th century
Studio portraits -- Argentina -- 19th century
Albumen prints -- Argentina -- 19th century
Cabinet photographs -- Argentina -- 19th century
Ford, Francis Clare,
1828-1899