Pifferari

Trained as a painter in the studio of Paul Delaroche, Charles Nègre was among the first generation of paper-print photographers in France, beginning in the early 1850s. With the instability of chemically based photographs evident from the start, Nègre and others worked to develop an effective process for printing photographs in ink. Here, a picturesque scene of musicians is printed as a salt print, an albumen print, an unretouched photogravure, and a second photogravure with extensive handwork. While other inventors boasted of the purity of their gravure processes, Nègre appears to have been unafraid to apply his artistic talents to the printing plate.