Image and Enterprise

by Braun, Adolphe; Bergstein, Mary; O'Brien, Maureen C.; Rhode Island School of Design Museum of Art

• ISBN13: 9780500542323
• ISBN10: 0500542325
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2000-02-01
• Publisher: Thames & Hudson

Summary

Ever since their creation in nineteenth-century France, Adolphe Braun's photographic images have been uniformly praised for their beauty. Braun was a trained textile designer who initially used the nascent technology of photography to document the French landscape and architecture, traditional regional costume, animal breeds and husbandry, and the events and legacies of the Franco-Prussian war. Braun's opulent bouquets of flowers are at once lush, delicate, and richly tonal; his landscapes are breathtaking and immediate; his animal studies arresting; his war photos dramatic and unrelenting. He created thousands of visual souvenirs of pristine alpine sites and would ultimately become one of the first to reproduce works of art photographically for a mass audience. Although the creation of "fine art" was not his intention, Braun produced work that was (and still is) synonymous with superb technical and artistic resolution, as he sought to identify popular uses for the process of photography. Through Braun's provocative work, Image and Enterprise explores the origins of contemporary visual communication--from the evolution of photography to the means of dissemination to the public. The introductory essays give an overview of Braun's photographic enterprise, his use of new technology, and the political and economic climate in which his business flourished. Other essays examine discrete aspects of Braun's work in the context of contemporary social, economic, and cultural history. Published to accompany an exhibition at the Rhode Island School of Design and the Cleveland Museum of Art.

Table of Contents

Foreword	6	(3)
Phillip M. Johnston
Adolphe Braun's Photographic Enterprise	9	(22)
Christian Kempf
Reproducing Visual Images	31	(14)
Naomi Rosenblum
Adolphe Braun and Textile Design	45	(22)
Susan Hay
The Influence of Contemporary French Painting	67	(26)
Maureen C. O'Brien
Souvenirs of Progress The Second-Empire Landscapes	93	(28)
Deborah Bright
Art Enlightening the World	121	(20)
Mary Bergstein
Checklist of Works	141	(12)
Adolphe Braun
Bibliography	153	(3)
List of Illustrations	156	(2)
Index of Names	158	(2)
List of Lenders	160