Jean Laurent (photographer)

Laurent first moved to Spain in 1843, and settled in Madrid. Until 1855, he worked as a box and paper maker, creating luxurious boxes for pastries and marbled paper for book bindings. That year, he became interested in photography from having done work coloring photographs. The following year, he was able to open a studio on the Carrera de San Jerónimo, near the Congress of Deputies, the same location where the British photographer, Charles Clifford, had set up his first studio. '' (1874) In 1866, together with the Spanish photographer , he patented which produced positives, rather than the negatives produced by the albumen print process. The paper enjoyed some popularity in Spain and France, but was never widely used. That same year, he opened a store in Paris, devoted exclusively to selling his photographs of Spain and Portugal. In 1874, he was commissioned by Baron Émile d’Erlanger to take photographs of Francisco de Goya's Black Paintings at the Quinta del Sordo. The photographs were later used as a guide by the artist, Salvador Martínez Cubells, to remove the paintings and restore them for public display. This led to Laurent becoming the official photographer for the Museo del Prado, in 1879. Laurent's son-in-law, Alfonso Roswag Nogier (1833–1900), became his principal partner and carried on the firm's business after Laurent's retirement in 1881. After his death, the archive was acquired by the French photographer Joseph Jean Marie Lacoste Borde. When he was called to serve in the war in 1915, the collection was purchased by Joana Roig Villalonga, a Mallorcan, who continued to issue images under the name Casa Laurent until the archive was bought again, this time by another photographer, , in 1930. ==Gallery of images==

File:Caricatura del fotógrafo Juan (o Jean) Laurent en 1862. Fotografía de la Casa Laurent, Madrid.png|Caricature of Laurent (1862) File:Juan Laurent Helmet.jpg|Helmet with Gorget of Philip III, Made in Pamplona, albumen photograph by Juan Laurent, 1863–1868 File:Juan Laurent Goya.jpg|A Walk in Andalusia (tapestry after cartoon by Francisco de Goya), albumen photograph by Juan Laurent, 1875–1879 File:Torre Nueva, Zaragoza, VN-03331 P.jpg|Zaragoza, Torre Nueva (c. 1875). This tower was demolished in 1892–1893. It was a clock tower, built of brick in the Mudéjar style in the early sixteenth century File:Detalle del carruaje laboratorio del fotógrafo J. Laurent en el año 1872, en Valladolid, España.tif|Carriage laboratory by J. Laurent, in Valladolid, Spain, in the year 1872. Fototeca del Instituto del Patrimonio Cultural de España. File:Sevilla Cathedral by Juan Laurent.jpg|Sevilla Cathedral by Juan Laurent, c. 1866, Department of Image Collections, National Gallery of Art Library, Washington, DC File:Alhambra by Juan Laurent.jpg|Mullioned windows of the Hall of the Two Sisters, Alhambra, Granada by Juan Laurent, c. 1874, Department of Image Collections, National Gallery of Art Library, Washington, DC File:Arc de Berà by Juan Laurent.jpg|Arc de Berà, Tarragona, Spain, photograph by Juan Laurent, 1866-1867, Department of Image Collections, National Gallery of Art Library, Washington, DC == References ==

• Las fotografías valencianas de J. Laurent. Valencia, Ayuntamiento de Valencia, 2003. • Jean Laurent en el Museo Municipal de Madrid. Retratos. Artistas plásticos, cat. Purificación Nájera Colino. Madrid, Museo Municipal de Madrid, 2005. Tomo I. . • La Casa Laurent y Guadalajara. Fotografías, 1862–1902. Guadalajara, Diputación Provincial, 2007. • La Andalucía del siglo XIX en las fotografías de J. Laurent y Cía.. Almería, Junta de Andalucía, 1999. • ''Un fotógrafo francés en la España del siglo XIX: J. Laurent: Un photographe français dans l'Espagne du XIXème siècle''. Madrid, Ministerio de Educación y Cultura, Caja de Madrid, 1996. • J. Laurent y Cía en Aragón. Fotografías, 1861–1877. Zaragoza, Diputación Provincial de Zaragoza, 1997. • Obras Públicas de España. Fotografías de J. Laurent, 1858–1870. Ciudad Real, Universidad de Castilla-La Mancha, 2003. == Collections ==

• The Solemnity of Shadows: Juan Laurent’s Vision of Spain Honoring Juan Laurent on His 200th Birthday (2016) • Laurent & Co. a history @ the Museo del Prado • Works by Laurent @ the Institut Nationale d'Histoire de l'Art. (INHA) • Works by Laurent @ the Biblioteca Digital Hispánica • Works by Laurent @ the Instituto del Patrimonio Cultural de España (IPCE) • Toledo en las Fotografías de J.Laurent by Carlos Magariños Laguía (Masters Thesis) • Álbum de Toledo (1865), Archivo Municipal