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Moulin (Félix) photographs of Algerians
2022.R.2
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Title: Félix Moulin photographs of Algerians
Date (inclusive): 1856-1857
Number: 2022.R.2
Creator/Collector:
Moulin, Félix Jacques
Antoine, 1802-1879
Physical Description:
1 Linear Feet
(21 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 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.
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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, 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.
Open for use by qualified researchers.
Contact
Library Reproductions
and Permissions
.
Félix Moulin photographs of Algerians, 1856-1857, The Getty Research Institute, Los
Angeles, Accession no. 2022.R.2.
http://hdl.handle.net/10020/cifa2022r2
Immediate Source of Acquisition
Acquired in 2022.
The collection was processed and the finding aid written by Beth Ann Guynn in 2022.
Existence and Location of Copies
The collection was digitized in 2022 and the images are available online:
http://hdl.handle.net/10020/2022r2
Scope and Content of Collection
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.
Arranged in a single series. .Series I. Félix Moulin photographs of
Algerians, 1856-1857
Algerians -- Portraits
Colonial administators -- Algeria --
Portraits
Judges (Islamic law) -- Algeria -- Portraits
Algeria -- Description and travel
Photographs, Original.
Albumen prints -- Algeria -- 19th century
Group portraits -- Algeria -- 19th century
Double portraits -- Algeria -- 19th century
Moulin, Félix Jacques
Antoine, 1802-1879