Louis Eugène Pirou (26 September 1841 – 30 September 1909) was a French photographer and filmmaker, known primarily for his portraits of celebrities and scenes from the

Paris Commune The Paris Commune (french: Commune de Paris, ) was a revolutionary government that seized power in Paris, the capital of France, from 18 March to 28 May 1871. During the Franco-Prussian War of 1870–71, the French National Guard had defende ...

. He was awarded a gold medal at the Exposition Universelle of 1889.

Life and work

He owned numerous studios in Paris, mostly on the

Boulevard Saint-Germain Boulevard Saint-Germain () is a major street in Paris on the Rive Gauche of the Seine. It curves in a 3.5-kilometre (2.1 miles) arc from the Pont de Sully in the east (the bridge at the edge of Île Saint-Louis) to the Pont de la Concorde ...

, but he also operated one at an old evangelical mission on the Rue Royale. That one was sold to a photographer named Arthur Herbert, in 1889, with permission to use Pirou's name. In 1898, Herbert sold the studio to the brothers Georges and Oscar Mascré (1865-1943), who continued to use Pirou's name without his permission. Pirou lost a complicated lawsuit against the brothers, who compounded the fraud by referring to the studio as "Otto-Pirou", in reference to Otto Wegener, a Swedish-born photographer who was also not associated with them.Camille Blot-Wellens, "Eugène Pirou, portraitiste de la Belle Époque", in ''Revue de la Bibliothèque nationale de France'' #50, 24 September 2015, . During the Exposition of 1889, he saw a presentation of

chronophotography Chronophotography is a photographic technique from the Victorian era which captures a number of phases of movements. The best known chronophotography works were mostly intended for the scientific study of locomotion, to discover practical inform ...

, given by its inventor, Étienne-Jules Marey. Not long after, he decided to pursue the new art of

cinematography Cinematography (from ancient Greek κίνημα, ''kìnema'' "movement" and γράφειν, ''gràphein'' "to write") is the art of motion picture (and more recently, electronic video camera) photography. Cinematographers use a lens to focu ...

. He bought the necessary equipment in the summer of 1896 and, together with his employee,

Albert Kirchner Albert Kirchner (1860–1902), better known under the pseudonym Léar, was a French photographer, manufacturer, exhibitor,Richard Abel''Encyclopedia of early cinema'' Taylor & Francis, 2005, , p.518 and filmmaker who is noted for producing severa ...

, who would later become a noted filmmaker in his own right, he filmed scenes of assorted events in Paris and showed them at the "Cinématographe Eugène Pirou" in the basement of the Café de la Paix at the Place de l'Opéra, with a projector designed by

Henri Joly Henri Joly (1866–1945) was a French inventor and businessman. He developed early versions of motion picture film, cameras, and projectors. Biography Joly was born in Viomenil, Vosges in 1866. By 1889 he was a gymnastics instructor at the school o ...

. He and Kirchner later produced one of the first known erotic films, ''

Le Coucher de la Mariée ''Le coucher de la mariée'' or ''Bedtime for the Bride'' or ''The Bridegroom's Dilemma'' is a French erotic short film considered to be one of the first erotic films made. The film was first screened in Paris in November 1896, within a year of ...

'' (generally called ''Bedtime for the Bride'' in English), starring an actress who went by the name Louise Willy. It was mostly a striptease. He also produced a short film about the Parisian visit of Tsar

Nicolas II Nicholas II or Nikolai II Alexandrovich Romanov; spelled in pre-revolutionary script. ( 186817 July 1918), known in the Russian Orthodox Church as Saint Nicholas the Passion-Bearer,. was the last Emperor of Russia, King of Congress Polan ...

in 1896. He was married twice. His first wife died in 1881 and his second in 1899.''

Le Figaro ''Le Figaro'' () is a French daily morning newspaper founded in 1826. It is headquartered on Boulevard Haussmann in the 9th arrondissement of Paris. The oldest national newspaper in France, ''Le Figaro'' is one of three French newspapers of r ...

'', 8 janvier 1899, page
Online
@ ''Gallica''

References

External links

@ ''

Who's Who of Victorian Cinema ''Who's Who of Victorian Cinema'' is a reference work on film pioneers by Stephen Herbert and Luke McKernan, British scholars of film history. Originally published by the British Film Institute in 1996 as a reference book, the content has been revi ...

''
List of works
@

IMDb IMDb (an abbreviation of Internet Movie Database) is an online database of information related to films, television series, home videos, video games, and streaming content online – including cast, production crew and personal biographies, ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Pirou, Eugene 1841 births 1909 deaths French photographers