Los 4029

Courret Hermanos
(Eugène & Aquiles Courret, active 1863-1935)Souvenirs de l'Ile Tahiti et des Marquises

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Fotografie des 19. – 21. Jahrhunderts (Katalog nur online verfügbar)
Auktionsdatum 29.11.2025

Souvenirs de l’Ile Tahiti et des Marquises. 1863. 21 albumen prints, mounted to album pages. Each ca. 11 x 15,5 cm or reverse (22 x 29 cm). Each with “Courret Hermanos Fotógrafos Calle Mercaderes 197, Lima” blind stamp on the mount, annotated in black ink below the image. Bound in green half-leather album with gilt-stamped title "Souvenirs de l’Ile Tahiti et des Marquises" in rhombus cartouche on front cover. Housed in a custom clamshell box covered in green faux-leather with mounted printed title label bordered by four diamond-shaped wooden inlays (entire size 30 x 41 cm).

Compiled shortly after the founding of the Courret Hermanos studio in Lima in March 1863 by French-born brothers Hippolyte and Eugène Courret, this rare album presents one of the earliest photographic surveys of Tahiti and the Marquesas Islands. Within months of establishing their studio, the brothers embarked on an expedition to the South Pacific, arriving in Tahiti in September that same year. Their photographs strike a balance between studio-style portraiture and documentary views, capturing full-length images of Tahitian and Marquesan men and women - some in traditional dress, others in Western attire - as well as expansive scenes of Papeete’s streets, including the royal palace of Queen Pōmare IV, the colonial hospital, and Rue de Rivoli. Views from Nuku Hiva include Taiohae’s government buildings and Fort Collet. Marked by formal clarity and ethnographic detail, the album documents a pivotal moment in the colonial transformation of French Polynesia, as seen through the lens of recently arrived French photographers working far beyond their Lima base. – Album cover with some scuff marks, stains, and wear to edges and corners. Inner mounts with smudge marks, small tears, and edge wear. Some prints with some small surface irregularities and slight fading, particularly around the edges. Overall in good condition, with a strong tonal range preserved across most images. With: 7 carte-de-visite portraits of Tahitians.