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2. Edouard Baldus
– Painter, Photographer and Member of the Legion of Honour |
Cathedrale de Chartres (Facade principale Portal) |
 Paris - Arc du Caroussel |
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The pictures that he brings with him find general appreciation. In 1851, he is a founding member of the Société Héliographique, the first photographic society. Together with Hippolyte Bayard, Gustave Le Gray, Henri Le Secq, and Auguste Mestral he is assigned in the same year by the Commission for the Preservation of Monuments, with the ‘Mission Héliographique' which has the task of photographing historic buildings of France. So he travelled to Fontainebleau, through Burgundy and Provence. His photos impress by the clarity, beauty and the size of the prints, the latter because he probably was among the first to combine several negatives. Other major government contracts are the result and after only a few years, he is regarded as the leading architectural photographer of France. |
He presents his photos at the Exposition Universelle in May 1855. Many of the total of 5 million visitors of this second World's Fair ever marvel at his photos. And so, still during the exhibition Edouard Baldus gets a lucrative contract: Baron James de Rothschild, Europe's leading banker and owner of the "Chemin de Fer du Nord", instructs him to make a photo album of this northern railway and the towns of the route, an important link in the transport connection France - England. Rothschild wants to hand over this album as a gift to Queen Victoria during her visit of the World Fair in August of the year. Incredible: He, Eduard Baldus, a boy from Grünebach, at the age of 42 as Edouard Baldus now an acclaimed photographer and artist working for Baron Rothschild and Queen Victoria. |
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