Franz Benque (12 March 1841 – 30 March 1921), known in Brazil as Francisco Benque, was a German photographer.

Biography

Son of a professor, Benque was born in

Ludwigslust Ludwigslust () is a central castle town of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Germany, 40 km south of Schwerin. Since 2011 it has been part of the Ludwigslust-Parchim district. Ludwigslust is part of the Hamburg Metropolitan Region. The former royal re ...

, nowadays, a city located in the

Ludwigslust-Parchim Ludwigslust-Parchim is a district in the west of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Germany. It is bordered by (clockwise starting from the west) the state Schleswig-Holstein, the district Nordwestmecklenburg, the district-free city Schwerin, the districts ...

district in

Mecklenburg-Vorpommern Mecklenburg-Vorpommern (MV; ; nds, Mäkelborg-Vörpommern), also known by its anglicized name Mecklenburg–Western Pomerania, is a state in the north-east of Germany. Of the country's sixteen states, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern ranks 14th in pop ...

, northern (Germany). He received lessons of photography from C.C. Hersen before moving to the then Austrian city of Trieste in 1864, where he opened a

studio A studio is an artist or worker's workroom. This can be for the purpose of acting, architecture, painting, pottery (ceramics), sculpture, origami, woodworking, scrapbooking, photography, graphic design, filmmaking, animation, industrial design, ...

in partnership with the Italian

watchmaker A watchmaker is an artisan who makes and repairs watches. Since a majority of watches are now factory-made, most modern watchmakers only repair watches. However, originally they were master craftsmen who built watches, including all their part ...

Guglielmo Sebastianutti (1825–1881), marrying Sebastianutti' stepdaughter, Isabella, in 1868. Despite being recognized by the local press and specialized organizations, receiving – among other things – a silver medal in the

World Fair A world's fair, also known as a universal exhibition or an expo, is a large international exhibition designed to showcase the achievements of nations. These exhibitions vary in character and are held in different parts of the world at a specif ...

of Paris in 1867,Schaukal, Barbara
''Sebastianutti & Benque – Five Photographers. Four Generations. Three Continents''
. Retrieved 1 April 2008 Benque returned to (Germany) in 1869 and opened a studio with his cousin Conrad Kindermann in

Hamburg Hamburg (, ; nds, label=Hamburg German, Low Saxon, Hamborg ), officially the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg (german: Freie und Hansestadt Hamburg; nds, label=Low Saxon, Friee un Hansestadt Hamborg),. is the List of cities in Germany by popul ...

. One year later, in 1870, immigrated with his family to Brazil. With Alberto Henschel (1827–1882), a German from

Berlin Berlin is Capital of Germany, the capital and largest city of Germany, both by area and List of cities in Germany by population, by population. Its more than 3.85 million inhabitants make it the European Union's List of cities in the European U ...

that migrated to Brazil in 1866, owner of the company ''Photographia Allemã'' (''German Photography'') with studios in

Bahia Bahia ( , , ; meaning "bay") is one of the 26 states of Brazil, located in the Northeast Region of the country. It is the fourth-largest Brazilian state by population (after São Paulo, Minas Gerais, and Rio de Janeiro) and the 5th-largest ...

and

Pernambuco Pernambuco () is a state of Brazil, located in the Northeast region of the country. With an estimated population of 9.6 million people as of 2020, making it seventh-most populous state of Brazil and with around 98,148 km², being the ...

, Benque established the partnership ''Henschel & Benque Photographia Allemã'' that would become one of the most renowned Brazilian photography houses in that

time Time is the continued sequence of existence and events that occurs in an apparently irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequence events, t ...

. In 1878 Benque returned to Trieste and continued to work with Sebastianutti. In 1903, he moved to the Austrian city of

Villach Villach (; sl, Beljak; it, Villaco; fur, Vilac) is the seventh-largest city in Austria and the second-largest in the federal state of Carinthia. It is an important traffic junction for southern Austria and the whole Alpe-Adria region. , the ...

, where he died in 1921.

References

Bibliography

* Schiffer-Ekhart, Armgard: ''Sebastianutti & Benque. Fünf Fotografen. Vier Generationen. Drei Kontinente.''

ext of Barbara Schaukal Ext, ext or EXT may refer to: * Ext functor, used in the mathematical field of homological algebra * Ext (JavaScript library), a programming library used to build interactive web applications * Exeter Airport (IATA airport code), in Devon, Engla ...

catalog of the exposition, Graz, museum Steiermärkisches Landesmuseum Joanneum, 16.10.-13.11.1997. * Karp Vasquez, Pedro: ''Fotografós Alemães no Brasil do Século XIX, Deutsche Fotografen des 19. Jahrhunderts in Brasilien'', ed. Metalivros, published in 2000. * Schwede, Sandra: ''Mit Licht und Tücke'', Die Frühzeit der Photographie im Großherzogtum Mecklenburg-Schwerin (1839–1880), ed. Tectum Verlag, Marburg 2006, also: Universidade de Greifswald diss. 2006. 1841 births 1921 deaths Photographers from Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania People from Ludwigslust German expatriates in Brazil {{Germany-photographer-stub