Orsay

Photography is nowadays considered to be one of the most distinguished of the fine arts, and the Musee d'Orsay has done much to bring this about. Indeed, a photographic collection was planned for the museum ever since its creation in 1979. At the time such a decision was seen as a novelty in the French museum system, and it helped to encourage the beginnings of an art market in the domain. The collection, which was started from nothing, now comprises some 50 000 pieces of work, dated from 1839 to 1918. Although French photography is prevalent, work from abroad is extremely well represented through masterpieces from England and the United States. The authors present a historical record of the collections, and then go on to discuss the "primitif" approach in the 1850s and 60s, and then English and American photography pre 1880. They then look at the revolution in techniques which took place in the 1888s, and which made photography more available to all kinds of amateurs, writers, painters or sculptors. The last section concentrates on documentary photography which, until Atget and Man Ray's time, was greatly inspired by artistic photography.
This elaborately illustrated and thorough publication provides one with an entire history of photography, and reveals the enormous range of the Musee d'Orsay's photographic collections, including its most recent acquisitions.