Antoine Samuel Adam-Salomon

Antoine Samuel Adam-Salomon
Self-portrait, c. 1860
Born(1818-01-09)9 January 1818
La Ferté-sous-Jouarre, Seine-et-Marne, Kingdom of France
Died28 April 1881(1881-04-28) (aged 63)
Paris, French Third Republic
Resting placeFontainebleau
Other namesExhibited in the Salon as "Adama" (1844 and 1848).
Occupation(s)Sculptor, portrait photographer
OrganizationSociété Française de Photographie
Spouse
Georgine Cornélie Coutellier
​
​
(m. 1850; died 1878)​
Awards Legion of Honour - Knight (1870)

Antoine Samuel Adam-Salomon (9 January 1818 – 28 April 1881)[1] was a French sculptor and photographer.

Early career

Antoine Samuel Adam-Salomon was born to a French Jewish family on 9 January 1818 in La Ferté-sous-Jouarre, Seine-et-Marne, France. His father, Nathan-Herschel Salomon, intended for Antoine to have a career as a merchant.[2] Following a brief career as a modeler for the Jacob Petit pottery factory in Fontainebleau, he received a scholarship to study sculpture in Paris. He also traveled for studies to Switzerland and England.[3] His notable sculptures include busts of Victor Cousin, Odilon Barrot, Pierre-Jean de Béranger, Alphonse de Lamartine, Gioachino Rossini, and Marie Antoinette.[4][5]

Photography

After becoming established as a sculptor, Adam-Salomon studied photography under the portraitist Franz Hanfstaengl in Munich in 1858. He became a leading portrait photographer. Adam-Salomon returned to Paris where he opened a portrait studio in 1859. In 1865 he opened a second Paris studio.[6] Adam-Salomon's portrait photographs were considered to be among the best existing works during his lifetime, and were renowned for their chiaroscuro produced by special lighting techniques.[7]

Awards

In 1870 Adam-Salomon was made a member of the Société française de photographie.[8] He received a knighthood in France's Legion of Honour the same year, by decree on 9 August 1870.[9]

Significance

Photography as art

The photography of Adam-Salomon played a pivotal role in the mainstream acceptance of photography as an art form. For example, in 1858 the poet Alphonse de Lamartine described photography as "this chance invention which will never be art, but only a plagiarism of nature through a lens." A short time later, after seeing the photographs by Adam-Solomon, Lamartine changed his opinion.[10]

Critical praise

Coverage of Salomon's work in the French press outnumbered that of Félix Nadar by a ratio of ten to one. After the Paris Exposition of 1867, the reviewer for The Times (UK) described Salomon's pictures "matchless", "beyond praise," "the finest photographic portraits in the world."[11]

In the 1868 edition of the British Journal of Photography Almanac, editor J. Traill Taylor wrote:

The important discovery of the past year has been that M. Adams-Salomon, a Parisian photographer, has produced portraits of so high class as to show us the true capabilities of photography, and how much we have yet to overcome ere similar perfection can be claimed for the works of our average artists. It is far from being pleasant to know that we are so far behind the Parisians; but, believing such to be the case, the knowledge of the fact will, without doubt, rouse English artists to a sense of their shortcomings and the particular direction in which progress must be made.[12]

Selected works

Photography

Adam-Salomon is known[13] for producing a number of photographic works:

  • Philosophe
    Philosophe
  • Alphonse Karr, French critic, journalist, and novelist.
    Alphonse Karr, French critic, journalist, and novelist.
  • Charles Garnier, French architect.
    Charles Garnier, French architect.
  • Lajos Kossuth, Hungarian politician and revolutionary.
    Lajos Kossuth, Hungarian politician and revolutionary.
  • Labeled as "General Giroflore", identity unknown.
    Labeled as "General Giroflore", identity unknown.
  • Said to be Lola Montez, Irish dancer, actress, and courtesan
    Said to be Lola Montez, Irish dancer, actress, and courtesan

Sculpture

Adam-Salomon is known for a number of sculptures:-

Personal life

In 1850, Adam-Salomon married Georgine Cornélie Coutellier, a fellow artist. Coutellier was born a Christian, but converted to Judaism upon marrying Adam-Salomon, and embraced the Hebrew faith until her death in February 1878.[15] They had no children together.

See also

References

  1. ^ "Antoine-Samuel Adam-Salomon". Ottawa: National Gallery of Canada. Archived from the original on 22 November 2022. Retrieved 22 November 2022.
  2. ^ Blaise, Olivier (2013). "Samuel Adam-Salomon". Fontaine Bleau Photo (www.fontainebleau-photo.fr) (in French). Archived from the original on 22 November 2022. Retrieved 22 November 2022.
  3. ^ Weill, Julien (1906). "Adam-Salomon, Antony Samuel". In Isidore Singer, PhD (ed.). Jewish Encyclopedia. New York, New York: Funk & Wagnalls Kopelman Foundation. p. 184. Archived from the original on 22 November 2022. Retrieved 22 November 2022.
  4. ^ Berlioz, Hector; Braam, Gunther; Macnutt, Richard (1967). New Edition of the Complete Works. Vol. 26. Bärenreiter. p. 139. ISBN 978-3-7618-1677-6.
  5. ^ *Waters, Clara Erskine Clement; Hutton, Laurence (1879). Artists of the nineteenth century and their works: A handbook containing two thousand and fifty biographical sketches. Vol. 1. Boston: Houghton, Osgood & Co. p. 4. Archived from the original on 22 November 2022.
  6. ^ "Union List of Artist Names". J. Paul Getty Trust. Archived from the original on 22 November 2022. Retrieved 10 October 2010.
  7. ^ Hannavy, John (2008). Encyclopedia of Nineteenth-century Photography. Vol. 1. CRC Press. p. 6. ISBN 978-0-415-97235-2. Archived from the original on 22 November 2022.
  8. ^ Turner, Jane Shoaf (1996). "Adam-Salomon, Antoine-Samuel". The Dictionary of Art. Oxford, England: Oxford University Press.
  9. ^ "Salomon, Adam - Certificate Registration No 2450". France's National Archives - Léonore Database (in French). France. 9 August 2022. p. 1. Archived from the original on 23 November 2022. Retrieved 23 November 2022.
  10. ^ Jay, Martin (1994). Downcast eyes: the denigration of vision in twentieth-century French thought. University of California Press. p. 138. ISBN 978-0-520-08885-6. Retrieved 10 October 2010.
  11. ^ Buerger, Janet E. (1989). International Museum of Photography at George Eastman House (ed.). French Daguerreotypes. University of Chicago Press. pp. 56–59 at 56. ISBN 978-0-226-07985-1.
  12. ^ Taylor, J. Traill (1868). The British Journal of Photography Almanac (PDF). London: Henry Greenwood. p. 6. Archived from the original (PDF) on 3 March 2016. Retrieved 10 October 2010.
  13. ^ Antoine-Samuel Adam-Salomon (French, 1818–1881), retrieved 22 November 2022
  14. ^ "Sir Edwin Chadwick". National Portrait Gallery. Archived from the original on 22 November 2022. Retrieved 22 November 2022.
  15. ^ Singer, Isidore; Adler, Cyrus (1901). "The Jewish Encyclopedia: A Descriptive Record of the History, Religion, Literature, and Customs of the Jewish People from the Earliest Times to the Present Day". Archived from the original on 22 November 2022.
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Antoine Samuel Adam-Salomon in American public collections, on the French Sculpture Census website Edit this at Wikidata