Louis daguerre biography summary worksheet

On January 7, 1839, members of the French Académie des Sciences were shown products of an invention that would forever change the nature of visual representation: photography. The astonishingly precise pictures they saw were the work of Louis-Jacques-Mandé Daguerre (1787–1851), a Romantic painter and printmaker most famous until then as the proprietor of the Diorama, a popular Parisian spectacle featuring theatrical painting and lighting effects. Each daguerreotype (as Daguerre dubbed his invention) was a one-of-a-kind image on a highly polished, silver-plated sheet of copper.

Daguerre’s invention did not spring to life fully grown, although in 1839 it may have seemed that way. In fact, Daguerre had been searching since the mid-1820s for a means to capture the fleeting images he saw in his camera obscura, a draftsman’s aid consisting of a wood box with a lens at one end that threw an image onto a frosted sheet of glass at the other. In 1829, he had formed a partnership with Nicéphore Niépce, who had been working on the same problem—how to make a permanent image using light and chemistry—and who had achieved primitive but real results as early as 1826. By the time Niépce died in 1833, the partners had yet to come up with a practical, reliable process.

Not until 1838 had Daguerre’s continued experiments progressed to the point where he felt comfortable showing examples of the new medium to selected artists and scientists in the hope of lining up investors. François Arago, a noted astronomer and member of the French legislature, was among the new art’s most enthusiastic admirers. He became Daguerre’s champion in both the Académie des Sciences and the Chambre des Députés, securing the inventor a lifetime pension in exchange for the rights to his process. Only on August 19, 1839, was the revolutionary process explained, step by step, before a joint session of the Académie des Sciences and the Académie des Beaux-Arts, with an eager crowd of spectators spilling over i

French photographer, inventor of Daguerrotype (1787–1851)

"Daguerre" redirects here. For the crater, see Daguerre (crater).

Louis-Jacques-Mandé Daguerre (də-GAIR; French:[lwiʒɑkmɑ̃dedaɡɛʁ]; 18 November 1787 – 10 July 1851) was a Frenchscientist, artist and photographer, recognized for his invention of the eponymous daguerreotype process of photography. He became known as one of the fathers of photography. Though he is most famous for his contributions to photography, he was also an accomplished painter, scenic designer, and a developer of the diorama theatre.

Biography

Louis Daguerre was born in Cormeilles-en-Parisis, Val-d'Oise. He was apprenticed in architecture, theatre design, and panoramic painting to Pierre Prévost, the first French panorama painter. Exceedingly adept at his skill of theatrical illusion, he became a celebrated designer for the theatre, and later came to invent the diorama, which opened in Paris in July 1822.

In 1829, Daguerre partnered with Nicéphore Niépce, an inventor who had produced the world's first heliograph in 1822 and the oldest surviving camera photograph in 1826 or 1827. Niépce died suddenly in 1833, but Daguerre continued experimenting, and evolved the process which would subsequently be known as the daguerreotype. After efforts to interest private investors proved fruitless, Daguerre went public with his invention in 1839. At a join

Louis Daguerre (November 18, 1787–July 10, 1851) was the inventor of the daguerreotype, the first form of modern photography. A professional scene painter for the opera with an interest in lighting effects, Daguerre began experimenting with the effects of light upon translucent paintings in the 1820s. He became known as one of the fathers of photography.

Early Life

Louis Jacques Mandé Daguerre was born in 1787 in the small town of Cormeilles-en-Parisis, and his family then moved to Orléans. While his parents were not wealthy, they did recognize their son's artistic talent. As a result, he was able to travel to Paris and study with the panorama painter Pierre Prévost. Panoramas were vast, curved paintings intended for use in theaters.

Diorama Theatres

In the spring of 1821, Daguerre partnered with Charles Bouton to create a diorama theatre. Bouton was a more experienced painter but he eventually bowed out of the project, so Daguerre acquired sole responsibility of the diorama theatre.

The first diorama theatre was built in Paris, next to Daguerre's studio. The first exhibit opened in July 1822 showing two

Summary of Louis Daguerre

The influence of Daguerre's intervention on the shaping of the industrialized world is hard to overestimate. Having carved out a successful career as a theatrical scenery painter, the Frenchman turned to science and optics in search of a way of improving the production of his profitable entertainments. His move into the nascent field of photography led him ultimately to the development of his daguerreotype camera; the first form of mechanical reproduction to produce a finely detailed and permanent photographic record. The daguerreotype, which quickly spread throughout the world, proved to be the catalyst that has altered the way we have come to view and represent our world, including the radically altered perception of art, and what its function was; or what it should, or could, become.

Accomplishments

• Opinions differ as to when one can date the start of modernism, but there can be no doubt that Daguerre's "technological miracle" sent a shockwave through the sciences and the visual arts. Indeed, the daguerreotype "machine", which recorded the world with much more fidelity than the human eye and hand ever could marked a decisive turning point in the history of art.
• On the one hand, the daguerreotype had delivered a profound blow to the world of art by rendering realist painting all-but passé. But the daguerreotype had also liberated the artists in the sense that he or she no longer carried any responsibility for representing his or her world literally. For better or worse, Daguerre had effectively announced a brand new era in art history; an era marked by unprecedented experimentation and innovation.
• As camera technology improved, equipment became more mobile, and art photography more spontaneous and playful. The careful staging that was the daguerreotype's legacy lived on however in the "higher", or "spiritual", developments in the photographic arts. The fixed large format image came to define Straight Photography which created