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Moulin, Algérie album
2021.R.6
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Title: Félix Moulin Algérie album and loose photographs
Date (inclusive): 1856-1889
Number: 2021.R.6
Creator/Collector:
Moulin, Félix Jacques
Antoine, 1802-1879
Physical Description:
3 Linear Feet
2 boxes (1 album and 14 loose photographs)
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 an album
entitled Algérie containing 25 albumen photographs by
Félix-Jacques-Antoine Moulin and 14 loose albumen prints of Algeria, ten of which are by
Moulin, along with one photograph each by P. Famin & Cie (Paul Famin) and Veuve Plasse
& Oberty, and two photographs by unidentified photographers.
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Language: Collection material is in
French .
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.
Contact
Library Reproductions
and Permissions
.
Félix Moulin Algérie album and loose photographs, 1856-1889, The Getty Research Institute,
Los Angeles, accession no. 2021.R.6.
http://hdl.handle.net/10020/cifa2021r6
Immediate Source of Acquisition
Acquired in 2021.
The collection was processed and the finding aid written by Beth Ann Guynn in 2021.
The collection was digtized in 2022 and the finding aid is available online:
http://hdl.handle.net/10020/2021r6
Scope and Content of Collection
The collection comprises an album entitled
Algérie
containing 25 albumen photographs by Félix-Jacques-Antoine Moulin and 14 loose albumen
prints of Algeria, ten of which are by Moulin, along with one photograph each by P. Famin
& Cie (Paul Famin) and Veuve Plasse & Oberty, and two photographs by unidentified
photographers.
Included in the album are views of Algiers, Biskra, Blida, Batna, Cherchell, Constantine,
Philippeville (Skida), Tébessa, and Tlemcen in Algeria and one view of Tunis. Also included
is a group portrait of Monsignor Pavy, the bishop of Algiers, standing with his vicars in
the bishop's gallery, and one of General MacMahon, a Commander of the Order of the Légion
d'honneur, who had spent much of his military career in Algeria, with Commander Borel.
The loose photographs by Moulin include views of Algiers, Blida, Tlemcen, and Oran, as well
a group portrait of Marshall Randon, Governor-General of Algerie from 1851 to 1858, with
other military figures, and one of Monsignor Pavy seated with his vicars. The photographs by
other photographers are of Algiers, Lambessa, and Batna.
Many of Moulin's images make direct or indirect reference to the French colonial presence
in Algeria, which in the case of several images is reinforced by their extensive
accompanying captions. The French administrative presence is palpable in a group portrait of
Maréchal Comte Randon, governor general of Algeria, and his staff, while "Place du
Gouvernement et Mosquée de la Pêcherie, à Alger" documents the wholesale rebuilding of
Algiers to accommodate the colonial infrastructure.
The collection is arranged in two series:
Series I.
Moulin, Félix, Algérie album, 1856-1857;
Series II. Loose photographs,
1856-1889.
MacMahon, Edme Patrice Maurice, comte de,
1808-1893
Randon, Jacques Louis César
Alexandre, comte, 1795-1871
P. Famin & Cie
Veuve Plasse & Oberty
Colonial administators -- Algeria --
Portraits
Mosques -- Algeria
Architecture -- Algeria
Algeria -- Description and travel
Tunisia -- Description and travel
Albumen prints -- Algeria -- 19th century
Group portraits -- Algeria -- 19th century
Photograph albums -- Algeria -- 19th century
Photographs, Original.
Moulin, Félix Jacques
Antoine, 1802-1879