Antonin Personnaz’s Autochrome Of 1907-1914 France

Art collector Antonin Personnaz captured the essence of France’s Oise Valley through a series of autochrome photographs taken between 1907 and 1914. His images, reminiscent of the works of renowned artists such as Edgar Degas, Claude Monet, Albert Lebourg, Jean-François Raffaelli, Camille Pissarro, and Paul Gachet, exude a dreamy, impressionistic quality. Personnaz’s approach to photography was deeply influenced by his connections with these artists.

In 1896, Personnaz became a member of the Société française de photographie, a prestigious photography society. By 1900, he also joined the Société d’excursion des amateurs de photographie, an organization dedicated to amateur photographers who enjoyed taking photographic excursions.

Between 1903 and 1905, Personnaz authored several essays on Camille Pissarro, discussing both the artist’s work and various photographic processes. He even photographed Pissarro in his studio, capturing intimate moments of the artist at work. Personnaz’s talent in photography was recognized through several prizes in photography contests, which encouraged him to explore new techniques.

In 1907, Antonin Personnaz began working with autochromes, a revolutionary color photography process invented by Auguste and Louis Lumière. Autochromes were the first practical color photographs, consisting of a positive color transparency on glass. The process involved coating a glass plate with a sticky varnish and then dusting it with randomly distributed, translucent potato-starch grains dyed in red, green, and blue. This grainy texture of autochromes imparted a unique impressionistic quality to the photographs.

Personnaz became a prolific autochrome photographer, creating more than a thousand plates using this technique. His extensive body of work not only documents the picturesque landscapes of the Oise Valley but also stands as a testament to the intersection of art and early color photography, blending the painterly styles of the Impressionists with the emerging technology of the early 20th century.

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