Moulin (Félix) photographs of Algerians, 1856-1857

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Summary

Title:

Félix Moulin photographs of Algerians

Dates:

1856-1857

Creators:

Moulin, Félix Jacques Antoine, 1802-1879

Abstract:

The collection comprises twenty-one albumen photographs of Algerians taken by French photographer Félix Moulin during his eighteen-month trip to Algeria from 1856 to 1857. Included are portraits of Algerian chiefs, holy men, scholars, musicians and dancers, fishermen, and water carriers. Also included are a few portraits of French administrators in Algeria.

Extent:

1 Linear Feet (21 photographs)

Language:

Collection material is in French .

Preferred citation:

Félix Moulin photographs of Algerians, 1856-1857, The Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles, Accession no. 2022.R.2.

http://hdl.handle.net/10020/cifa2022r2

Background

Scope and content:

The collection comprises twenty-one albumen photographs of Algerians taken by Félix Moulin during his eighteen-month trip to Algeria from 1856 to 1857. Included are Algerian chiefs, holy men, scholars, musicians and dancers, fishermen, and water carriers. The photographs are single, double, and group portraits mostly taken in a makeshift studio environment using rugs and other textiles as backdrops, although a few subjects are posed in settings featuring architectural details such as arched doorways, columns, and balconies. Also included are a few portraits of French administrators in Algeria including army officers gathered in the Bureau arabe in Bône (Anaba) and a scene taken at the Tribunal de conciliation des différentes races indigènes with two defendants present.

While the photographs in this collection are uncaptioned, detailed captions can be found in L'Algérie photographiée and other Moulin albums held in the Bibliothèque nationale de France. The captions often provide the names of the persons portrayed in the photographs. These nineteenth-century captions, presumably assigned by Moulin, have been used as titles for the individual photographs in this collection. Consequently some titles contain language that is now considered to be outdated, racist, or offensive.

Arrangement

Arranged in a single series. .Series I. Félix Moulin photographs of Algerians, 1856-1857

Biographical / historical:

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, protecting himself by placing copies of them on legal deposit at the Bibliothèque Impériale, Paris, and action which signaled that his photographs were not intended as erotica but as studies meant to be used by artists.

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.

As Moulin noted in his prospectus for the 1858 publication, his photographs of Algeria were meant to familiarize the French public with Algeria ("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"). Having found favor with Napoléon III, 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.

Acquisition information:

Acquired in 2022.

Processing information:

The collection was processed and the finding aid written by Beth Ann Guynn in 2022.

Physical location:

Request access to the physical materials described in this inventory through the catalog record for this collection. Click here for the access policy.

Rules or conventions:

Describing Archives: A Content Standard

Indexed terms

Subjects:: Algerians -- Portraits
Colonial administators -- Algeria -- Portraits
Judges (Islamic law) -- Algeria -- Portraits
Photographs, Original.
Albumen prints -- Algeria -- 19th century
Group portraits -- Algeria -- 19th century
Double portraits -- Algeria -- 19th century

About this collection guide

Collection Guide Author:: Beth Ann Guynn
Date Encoded:: This finding aid was produced using ArchivesSpace on 2022-06-22 10:06:25 -0700 .

Access and use

Restrictions:: Open for use by qualified researchers.
Terms of access:: Contact Library Reproductions and Permissions.