Charles Marville

Charles Marville, the pseudonym of Charles François Bossu (18 July 1816 – 1 June 1879), was a French photographer, who mainly photographed architecture, landscapes and the urban environment. He used both paper and glass negatives. He is most well known for taking pictures of ancient Parisian quarters before they were destroyed and rebuilt under "Haussmannization", Baron Haussmann's plan for modernization of Paris. "Marville created a model of photographic perception of the architectural environment that we still use and rely on today". In 1862, he was named official photographer of Paris.

Biography Marville's past was largely a mystery until Sarah Kennel of the National Gallery of Art and independent researcher Daniel Catan discovered that Marville's given name was Charles-François Bossu. That newly-found association allowed them to discover a variety of biographical information, including photographs of his family which had been considered lost to time.

Bossu was born in 1816 in Paris.

In 1853, he was commissioned to photograph Notre Dame Cathedral decorated for the marriage of Napoleon III; three years later, he photographed the baptism of the emperor's son, Eugène-Louis.

After the firm of Blanquart-Evrard closed in 1855, Marville began to find other clients for his work, as well as working as a printer and distributor for several photographers working in the Middle East and North Africa.

Beginning in 1858, he was charged––by the municipal administration and by individual architects––with photographing renewal projects in Paris. In 1862, he was officially named "Photographer of the City of Paris." This position entailed both documenting old streets that were earmarked for destruction, showing their overcrowded state, with little light or sanitary amenities, and photographing the new streets and monuments to show the beauty and improved quality of life that the renovations had brought to the capital. These photos were shown side-by-side at the Exposition Universelle of 1878.

Marville was commissioned to photograph the ruins of the old Hôtel de Ville, which had been destroyed during the Paris Commune, and then to document the rebuilding process. He died in 1879, before this project could be completed. He had no family, but a long-time companion, Jeanne-Louise Leuba, was included in his will.

Exhibition In 2013, the National Gallery of Art with The Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston organized an exhibit profiling Marville’s work in Charles Marville: Photographer of Paris. The show began at the National Gallery (September 29, 2013 – January 5, 2014) before travelling to the Metropolitan Museum (January 27-May 4, 2014) and Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (June 15-September 14, 2014).

Gallery

Notes and references

Publications Sarah Kennel. Charles Marville: Photographer of Paris 2013 University of Chicago Press; exhibition catalog Vasilyeva E. (2022) 36 essays on photographers. St. Petersburg: Palmira. pp. 121 - 132. Bertrand Lemoine, Charles Marville, 1813-1879, du pinceau à la chambre noire, Presses des Ponts, 2024, 656 pages (text in French) (ISBN 978-2-85978-572-7).