Claude-Marie Ferrier (1811–1889) was an early French photographer, known for his portraits of prominent French people, his work at the London

Great Exhibition The Great Exhibition of the Works of Industry of All Nations, also known as the Great Exhibition or the Crystal Palace Exhibition (in reference to the temporary structure in which it was held), was an international exhibition that took ...

, and for his production of stereoviews to be viewed through the

stereoscope A stereoscope is a device for viewing a stereoscopy, stereoscopic pair of separate images, depicting left-eye and right-eye views of the same scene, as a single three-dimensional image. A typical stereoscope provides each eye with a lens that ...

invented by

David Brewster Sir David Brewster Knight of the Royal Guelphic Order, KH President of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, PRSE Fellow of the Royal Society of London, FRS Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, FSA Scot Fellow of the Scottish Society of ...

Biography

Ferrier was born in 1811 in

Lyon Lyon (Franco-Provençal: ''Liyon'') is a city in France. It is located at the confluence of the rivers Rhône and Saône, to the northwest of the French Alps, southeast of Paris, north of Marseille, southwest of Geneva, Switzerland, north ...

, France. He began his career as an artist, studying at the ''

École nationale supérieure des beaux-arts de Lyon The École nationale supérieure des beaux-arts de Lyon is a school of art and design in Lyon, located in Les Subsistances, in the 1st arrondissement of Lyon, in the Rhône-Alpes region of France. It is part of the École des Beaux-Arts traditio ...

''. He then became interested in photography and began to experiment with the new medium, initially becoming known for his portraits of notable French people. By 1851 he had settled in Paris and in that year he exhibited at the Great Exhibition in London. His work so impressed the organisers that, together with the English photographer, Hugh Owen, he was asked to make photographs of the exhibits. More than 140 bound sets of reports and accompanying photographs, known as the ''Exhibition of the Works of Industry of All Nations, 1851: Reports by the Juries on the Subjects in the Thirty Classes into which the Exhibition was Divided'' were presented to, among others,

Queen Victoria Victoria (Alexandrina Victoria; 24 May 1819 – 22 January 1901) was Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837 until Death and state funeral of Queen Victoria, her death in January 1901. Her reign of 63 year ...

, Heads of Foreign Governments, the Exhibition commissioners, and the

British Museum The British Museum is a Museum, public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is the largest in the world. It documents the story of human cu ...

. In 1855, Ferrier exhibited at the '' Exposition Universelle'' of Paris, where he was awarded a silver medal. He is credited with creating the first glass stereoviews for the Brewster stereoscope in 1852. These became very popular and in 1857 he produced several series of stereoviews of France, Switzerland, Germany, Italy, Greece, and Turkey. Initially, he collaborated with

Jules Duboscq Louis Jules Duboscq (March 5, 1817 – September 24, 1886) was a French instrument maker, inventor, and pioneering photographer. He was known in his time, and is remembered today, for the high quality of his optical instruments. Life and wo ...

, with the two selling each other’s stereoviews. This arrangement came to an end when Duboscq experienced financial difficulties. In 1859 Ferrier went into partnership with his son and with another stereo photographer, Charles Soulier, with the business being sold in 1863 to Léon & Lévy, a company that specialized in stereoscopic views and picture postcards. However, Ferrier and Soulier continued to sell their photographs through the company. Ferrier continued to work as a photographer until his death on 13 July 1889. His photographs are held in collections around the world.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ferrier, Claude Marie 19th-century French inventors Pioneers of photography 19th-century French photographers 1811 births 1889 deaths