Gracieuse Céline Laguarde de Camoux (known as Céline Laguarde), (2 November 1873 – 20 May 1961), was a French photographer and a member of the

Pictorialist Pictorialism is an international style and aesthetic movement that dominated photography during the later 19th and early 20th centuries. There is no standard definition of the term, but in general it refers to a style in which the photographer ha ...

movement, a movement of creating photographs as an art work rather than as a simple image of record.

Early life

Gracieuse Céline Laguarde de Camoux, known as Céline Laguarde, was born in

Biarritz Biarritz ( , , , ; also spelled ; ) is a city on the Bay of Biscay, on the Atlantic coast in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques department in the French Basque Country in southwestern France. It is located from the border with Spain. It is a luxu ...

on 2 November 1873, the daughter of a Biarritz landowner, she remained very close to her native Basque Country. Laguarde lived in Paris from 1880 to 1890, before moving to

Aix-en-Provence Aix-en-Provence, or simply Aix, is a List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, city and Communes of France, commune in southern France, about north of Marseille. A former capital of Provence, it is the Subprefectures in France, s ...

. She was part of Aix-en-Provence society and held salons there, organising and taking part in musical and literary events. In an article ''Chronique aixoise'' in the Marseilles publication ''La Vedette'', published on 19 March 1898, she wrote ‘We applauded successively and no less warmly ''La Marche à l'étoile'' and ''L'Enfant prodigue'' from Frazerolle's score; the charming organ of Mlle Laguarde improvised as conductor, the supple, vibrant voice of an improvised mezzo-soprano'.

Photographic career

Laguarde's first prints date from the final years of the nineteenth century. Her first work, entitled ''Une précieuse'', was published in the magazine ''Art et Photographie'' in 1900. The following year, another print, ''L'Automne,'' was reproduced in the same magazine. She developed a passion for photography as part of the

movement. Laguarde soon became a pupil of

Robert Demachy Robert Demachy (1859–1936) was a prominent French Pictorial photographer of the late 19th and early 20th century. He is best known for his intensely manipulated prints that display a distinct painterly quality. Life Early years (1859–1875) ...

, with whom she shared a mastery of the gomme bichromatée technique of making photographic prints without using

silver halide A silver halide (or silver salt) is one of the chemical compounds that can form between the Chemical element, element silver (Ag) and one of the halogens. In particular, bromine (Br), chlorine (Cl), iodine (I) and fluorine (F) may each combine wit ...

s. Initially photographing her immediate family and close friends, Laguarde soon began photographing local personalities from the intellectual milieu of Provence, in which circles she moved in. Many of her salon guests were pressed into service as photographic models shortly afterwards. She first became a member of the Marseilles Photo-club. In 1901 her work was accepted for display at the Salon du

Photo-club de Paris The Photo-club de Paris was a French photographic society for amateur photographers, established in 1888, committed to advancing the art of photography. History The Photo-club de Paris was established in 1888 by Robert Demachy and Maurice Bucqu ...

, the annual exhibition organised by the leading French photographic association. She became a corresponding member of the Paris Photo-club in 1902. Laguarde's works ''Stella, Étude en brun'', ''Pierrette'' were printed alongside those of

Constant Puyo Émile Joachim Constant Puyo (November 12, 1857 – October 6, 1933) was a French photographer, active in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. As the leading advocate of the Pictorialist movement in France, he championed the practice of photog ...

and Maurice Bucquet, the greatest names in pictorialism, in the prestigious edition of ''L'Épreuve photographique.'' It was presented in intaglio printing, and published in two series in 1904 and 1905 by Plon, under the direction of Roger Aubry. The only woman to appear in the index of this publication, Laguarde can be considered the only female authority on the movement. Laguarde's work was published several times in specialist photographic magazines, both in France and internationally as well as in photography books. She took part in several exhibitions organised by photography clubs, including those in Marseille (1903 and 1904) and Paris. From 6 to 15 April 1911, the Photo-club de Nice organised an exhibition entirely devoted to her, in the Casino Municipal where she displayed almost 70 works. Her work as a pictorialist can be divided into two periods: from the end of the nineteenth century until 1909, and from 1909 to 1914.

Michel Poivert Michel Poivert (born 1965) is a professor of the history of contemporary art and photography at the Sorbonne. He has taken a special interest in pictorialism, the subject of his doctorate thesis. From 1995 to 2010, he was president of Société f ...

noted that ‘until 1909, critics recognised her as a mystical iconographer open to symbolic influences, whereafter she then devoted herself to portraits’. She created portraits of famous people:

Maurice Ravel Joseph Maurice Ravel (7 March 1875 – 28 December 1937) was a French composer, pianist and conductor. He is often associated with Impressionism in music, Impressionism along with his elder contemporary Claude Debussy, although both composer ...

Darius Milhaud Darius Milhaud (, ; 4 September 1892 – 22 June 1974) was a French composer, conductor, and teacher. He was a member of Les Six—also known as ''The Group of Six''—and one of the most prolific composers of the 20th century. His composition ...

Francis Jammes Francis Jammes (; 2 December 1868, in Tournay, Hautes-Pyrénées, Tournay – 1 November 1938, in Hasparren) was a French and European poet. He spent most of his life in his native region of Béarn and the Northern Basque Country, Basque Country ...

Maurice Barrès Auguste-Maurice Barrès (; 19 August 1862 – 4 December 1923) was a French novelist, journalist, philosopher, and politician. Spending some time in Italy, he became a figure in French literature with the release of his work ''The Cult of the S ...

Frédéric Mistral Joseph Étienne Frédéric Mistral (; , 8 September 1830 – 25 March 1914) was an Occitan writer and lexicographer of the Provençal form of the language. He received the 1904 Nobel Prize in Literature "in recognition of the fresh origina ...

and

Jules Chéret Jules Chéret (31 May 1836 – 23 September 1932) was a French painter and lithographer who became a master of ''Belle Époque'' poster art. He has been called the father of the modern poster. Early life and career Born in Paris to a poor bu ...

. On 28 January 1907, the minister of public education and fine arts issued a decree awarding her the title of

Ordre des Palmes académiques A suite, in Western classical music, is an ordered set of instrumental or orchestral/concert band pieces. It originated in the late 14th century as a pairing of dance tunes; and grew in scope so that by the early 17th century it comprised up to ...

as a painter in Paris. The magazine of the Société de photographie de Marseille published their congratulations.

Later life

On 25 November 1913, Céline Laguarde married Swiss doctor Édouard Frédéric Bugnion(fr.) (1845–1939) in Aix-en-Provence. Her photographic activity seems to have diminished after the

First World War World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

, although she did support her

entomologist Entomology (from Ancient Greek ἔντομον (''éntomon''), meaning "insect", and -logy from λόγος (''lógos''), meaning "study") is the branch of zoology that focuses on insects. Those who study entomology are known as entomologists. In ...

husband's scientific work with

microphotograph Microphotographs are photographs shrunk to microscopic scale.

s taken at their villa ''La Luciole'', near Aix. After her husband's death in Aix-en-Provence, she divided her time between France and Switzerland. Gracieuse Céline Laguarde de Camoux died in 1961. She had been a benefactress of the

Abbey of Saint-Maurice d'Agaune The Abbey of Saint Maurice, Agaunum ( or ''Saint-Maurice-en-Valais'') is a Swiss monastery of canons regular in Saint-Maurice, Canton of Valais, which dates from the 6th century. It is situated against a cliff in a section of the road between Ge ...

in Switzerland, financing the building of the new organ, and she was buried there after a funeral service in the basilica.

Awards

* Officier d'Académie (1907)

Legacy

Several of Legarde's images were exhibited and reproduced in the exhibition catalogue as part of the exhibition ''Qui a peur des femmes photographes?'' organised by the

Musée d'Orsay The Musée d'Orsay ( , , ) () is a museum in Paris, France, on the Rive Gauche, Left Bank of the Seine. It is housed in the former Gare d'Orsay, a Beaux-Arts architecture, Beaux-Arts railway station built from 1898 to 1900. The museum holds mai ...

in 2015 - 2016, leading to a wider rediscovery of her work. These included portraits of

Jean-Henri Fabre Jean-Henri Casimir Fabre (; 21 December 1823 – 11 October 1915) was a French naturalist, entomologist, and author known for the lively style of his popular books on the lives of insects. Biography Fabre was born on 21 December 1823 in Saint- ...

and

, as well as ''Sorcière, La Robe de gaze'' and two other portraits. In 2017, the Musée d'Orsay acquired a large collection of works by Laguarde and undertook new research into her work. As a result, the Musée d'Orsay is showing ''Céline Laguarde (1873-1961) Photographe'' an exhibition devoted to 140 of her works, running from 24 September 2024 to 12 January 2025. The

Metropolitan Museum The Metropolitan Museum of Art, colloquially referred to as the Met, is an encyclopedic art museum in New York City. By floor area, it is the third-largest museum in the world and the largest art museum in the Americas. With 5.36 million v ...

in New York holds her work ''Un Bibliothécaire'' (1900–1909).

Bibliography

* Alfred Maskell and

, ''Le Procédé à la gomme bichromatée, ou Photo-aquateinte'', translated from English by G. Devanlay, Gauthier-Villars et fils, Paris, first published in 1898; reprinted in 1987. * Robert Demachy and

, in ''Les Procédés d'art en photographie'', Photo-club de Paris, 1906, including a print of ''Fantaisie Louis XV'' by Céline Laguarde. * Thomas Galifot and Marie Robert (eds.), ''Qui a peur des femmes photographes? : 1839-1945,'' Paris,

/ Hazan, 2015, .

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Laguarde, Céline 1873 births 1961 deaths 19th-century French photographers 20th-century French photographers French women photographers Pictorialists People from Biarritz