Sabina Muchart

Sabina Jerónima Muchart Collboni (20 October 1858 – 21 March 1929) was a Spanish photographer who worked in Málaga from 1887 to 1928. Known for the variety and quality of her photographs, she is believed, among her other achievements, to have been the first Spanish female photojournalist and war photographer, although the latter is disputed.

Early life Muchart was born in Olot in the province of Girona in Catalonia, northern Spain on 20 October 1858. She was the daughter of Joan Muchart i Plana, a bricklayer, and Gerònima Collboni i Roca, the eldest daughter of a large family. Her paternal surname of Muchart was an adaptation of the French name of Mouchard. Her grandfather came from Dax in Nouvelle-Aquitaine in southwestern France.

Muchart was, above all, a portraitist, and some of her portraits in different formats have been preserved, mainly but not solely as "business cards". In addition, she took photographs of monuments and landscapes, which she sold in her studio and in the Papelería Catalana stationery shop next door. She also took stereoscopic views, one of the most successful types of photographs of the time. Six of her stereoscopes are known to still exist. Her studio portraits, with figures standing or seated, often in front of a curtain, were typical of the era although in some cases the figures (especially women) appear more comfortable when posing than that achieved by male photographers. A good part of her photographic activity is known due to the more than 70 postcards that Ricardo Álvarez Morales published in Málaga during the first years of the 20th century, using her photographs. These include views of the city, as well as the people, such as a fishmonger and a flamenco dancer. Some of her photographs were used to advertise Málaga wines.

Muchart also contributed to the most important Spanish graphic publications of the time. Sometimes her photographs would be used: on other occasions engravings based on her photos would be published. She was the first woman to sign her works as "photographer". In 1889, La Ilustración published a report on views of Málaga using some of her photographs. In 1891, La Ilustración Española y Americana published three of her photographs of paintings by the Málaga-born painter Antonio de la Torre. In 1893, La Ilustración Artística (Barcelona) published a portrait of a group of Red Cross ambulancemen in front of the entrance to the Rostrogordo fort in Melilla, an autonomous city of Spain bordered by Morocco. They were there as a result of the First Melillan campaign (1893–1894), also known as the Margallo War, which was a conflict between the Spanish and Moroccan armies. That photograph has served to attribute to Muchart the role of war reporter, although little other justification for this has been found, with no evidence that she visited Melilla and no other war photographs by her being found.

From 1900 she became well known for three postcards of the sinking of the German navy training ship SMS Gneisenau which, after hitting the breakwater of the eastern jetty of the port of Málaga, sank dramatically in a quarter of an hour with loss of life. In 1904 she published another series of photographs of Málaga in the Madrid magazine specialized in monumental views of cities, Alfredor del Mundo (Around the World). In 1906 another report by her was published in the bullfighting magazine La Fiesta Nacional, this time made in the bullring of Málaga, in which her proximity to the bullfighting is striking.

Death Muchart lived at her studio in Plaza de la Constitución until at least 1925 and possibly until her death in Málaga on 21 March 1929. Her younger brother, Francisco, had died from tuberculosis before her. She was buried at the San Miguel Cemetery in Málaga, as were two of her brothers. Her photographs are preserved in Málaga's archives, in the Díaz Escovar collection, by the Unicaja Foundation and in private collections.