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Koch & Wilz, Panoramas of Paris
2016.R.36
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Title: Koch & Wilz, Panoramas of Paris
Date (inclusive): 1864-1884
Number: 2016.R.36
Creator/Collector:
Koch & Wilz
Physical Description:
2.5 Linear Feet
(1 album containing 39 photographs)
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: The album of 39 panoramic photographs
by Koch & Wills includes 30 panoramas of Paris; two each of Trouville and Geneva; and
one each of Versailles, Zürich and Schloss Heidelberg; as well as panoramas of an
unidentified river town and an unidentified port.
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Language: Collection material is in French with some Persian
Georges-Laurent Koch and Antoine Wilz were Parisian cabinet makers, inventors and
photographers established in the rue Saint-Antoine during the 1850s and 1860s. In the 1860s
they invented a camera that took a panoramic image using a single negative.
The Parisian photographer, Paul-Augustin Gueuvin (born 1809) was associated with
Louis-Auguste Bisson around 1851 at 11, boulevard des Italiens. Gueuvin had a studio at 20,
rue Cassette, around 1862, moving to 30, boulevard d'Enfer at the end of the 1860s. He was
also briefly associated with Edmund L. Thiboust. Gueuvin exhibited at the Société française
de Photographie in 1863 and 1865. Gueuvin was both a portrait photographer and maker of city
and architectural views, known for his documentation of Paris. Between 1867 and 1871 he used
Koch & Wilz's single negative panoramic camera to produce striking views of Paris.
Sources consutlted:
____, Panoramas: photographies 1850-1950: collection Bonnemaison. Arles: Rencontres
internationales de la photographie, 1989.
Voignier, J.-M. Répertoire des photographes de France au dix-neuvième siècle.
Chevilly-Larue: Le Pont de Pierre, 1993.
Open for use by qualified researchers.
Contact
Library Reproductions and Permissions .
Koch & Wilz, Panoramas of Paris, 1864-1884, The Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles,
Accession no. 2016.R.36.
http://hdl.handle.net/10020/cifa2016r36
Immediate Source of Acquisition
Acquired in 2016.
The finding aid was written by Beth Ann Guynn and Nieves Maria Rocha in 2019.
The collection was digitized in 2019 and the images are available online:
Scope and Content of Collection
The album of 39 albumen panoramas by Koch & Wilz includes 30 panoramas of Paris; two
each of Trouville and Geneva; and one each of Versailles, Zürich, and Schloss Heidelberg; as
well as panoramas of an unidentified town along a river and an unidentified port. The
photographs were taken between 1864 and 1872. The panoramas of Paris document the city at
the height of the Second Empire, with many of the city's iconic monuments, buildings and
public spaces depicted. Included are views of the Louvre and the Hôtel de Ville taken before
and after the fires set during the 1871 Paris Commune. Of a more ephemeral nature are two
views of the 1867 Exposition universelle, whose buildings were destroyed shortly after the
conclusion of the fair.
Thirty-four mounts bear the letterpress imprint: Appareil panoramique de Koch & Wilz.
Phot. / 8 impasse Guéménée, Paris. Three mounts are blind stamped: Koch & Wilz. Impasse
Guéménée 8 Paris. Two mounts have neither imprint nor blind stamp. These two panoramas,
depicting the Louvre courtyard and Tuileries (2016.R.36-14) and view across the Seine to the
Louvre (2016.R.36-19), have been attibuted to Paul-Augustin Gueuvin. While the exact nature
of the association between Koch & Wilz and Gueuvin remains unclear, it is likely that
additional panoramas contained in the album were also taken by Gueuvin.
The album is bound in tan morocco with gilt borders and decorations and gilt edges. Persian
annotations are inked on the versos of most mounts. French annotations penciled on the
versos were partially cut off when the mounts were trimmed for binding and are mostly
illegible. A few mounts have French annotations penciled in a modern hand on their
rectos.
The album was acquired by the Persian prince Amir Doust Mohammad Khan Moayer ol-Mamalek
during his tour of Egypt and Europe in 1883 and 1884 (cf: Sotheby's, London,
Travel, Atlases, Maps and Natural History, April 30, 2015, lot
69). The Persian inscriptions on the versos of the mounts were likely added sometime
thereafter.
Arranged in a single series:
Series I. Panoramas of Paris,
1864-1884.
Gueuvin, Paul Augustin, 1809-
Amir Doust Mohammad Khan, Moayer ol-Mamalek
Hôtel de ville (Paris,
France)
Exposition universelle de 1867 à
Paris
Geneva (Switzerland) -- Description
and travel
Heidelberg (Germany) -- Description
and travel
Trouville-sur-Mer (France) --
Description and travel
Versailles (France) -- Description and
travel
Zürich (Switzerland) -- Description
and travel
Paris (France) -- Description and travel
Albumen prints--France--19th century
Panoramas--France--19th century
Photograph albums -- France -- 19th century
Photographs, Original
Koch & Wilz