Daguerre, Louis Jacques Mandé


Daguerre, Louis Jacques Mandé

(lwē zhäk mäNdā` dägâr`), 1789–1851, French scene painter and physicist, inventor of the daguerreotype, a photograph produced on a silver-coated copper plate treated with iodine vapor. Known first for his illusionistic painted stage sets, Daguerre attracted further attention as the inventor and exhibitor, with C. M. Bouton, of the diorama (pictorial views seen with changing lighting), shown at the Diorama in Paris. In 1829 his experiments with the daguerreotype were joined with those of J. Nicéphore NiépceNiépce, Joseph Nicéphore
, 1765–1833, French chemist who originated a process of photography (see photography, still). In 1826 he produced the first known photograph, which he called a heliograph, using bitumen of Judea (a form of asphalt) on on a pewter
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, who had been doing related work since 1814. Until Niépce's death in 1833 they worked together on the photographic process. Daguerre completed the invention of the daguerreotype alone, and in 1839 it was made public and ceded to the Academy of Sciences, only a few weeks before the rival invention of the calotype was announced by William Henry Fox TalbotTalbot, William Henry Fox,
1800–1877, English inventor of photographic processes (see photography, still). A man of enormously versatile intelligence, he invented the "photogenic drawing" process in 1834.
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. The daguerreotype was introduced into the United States by J. W. DraperDraper, John William,
1811–82, American scientist, philosopher, and historian, b. near Liverpool, England, M.D. Univ. of Pennsylvania, 1836. In 1839 he became professor of chemistry at the Univ. of the City of New York.
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 and S. F. B. MorseMorse, Samuel Finley Breese,
1791–1872, American inventor and artist, b. Charlestown, Mass., grad. Yale, 1810. He studied painting in England under Washington Allston and achieved some success.
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.

Bibliography

See studies by H. and A. Gernsheim (rev. ed. 1968) and S. C. Pinson (2012).

Daguerre, Louis Jacques Mandé

 

Born Nov. 18, 1787, in Cormeilles (Seine-et-Oise); died July 10, 1851, in Petit-Brie-sur-Marne. French inventor in the field of photography. An artist by profession, he created the first diorama in 1822. Daguerre succeeded in developing a process, called daguerreotype, for producing permanent images; this process was the first widely used photographic method.

WORKS

Historique et description des procèdes du daguerreotype et du diorama. Paris, 1839.

REFERENCES

Evgenov, S. V. Dager, N’eps, Tal’bot: Populiarnyi ocherk ob izo-bretateliakhfotografii. Moscow, 1938.
Dokumenty po istorii izobreteniia fotografii: Perepiska Zh. N. N’ep-sa, Zh. M. Dagera i dr. lits. Moscow, 1949.