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In the Age of Mechanical Reproduction

Reproductions of the Saint Francis in the Musée des Beaux-Arts de Lyon were made throughout the 19th and 20th centuries. Aimed at art lovers, art historians, artists and art school students alike, they attest to the masterpiece status accorded to the painting over a long period of time without interruption. They also provide an insight into the inevitable subjectivity of the authors of these images, who have conditioned the way in which the work is viewed.

As early as 1855, the painting was reproduced as an etching by Jean François Dubouchet, who managed to capture the contrasts of light and shadow, while suggesting that the tones in the painting were lighter than they actually were.
The very dark print published in 1906 by the photographer Jacques-Ernest Bulloz (1858-1942) offers a more ghostly vision, while the postcards based on photographs by Jules Sylvestre are more faithful to the original.

The image of Saint Francis was then disseminated through postcards based on photographs by Jean Camponogara. The lighting varied, creating different perceptions of the painting: from underexposure, which discoloured the work, to the darkest shot, which dramatised the composition and accentuated the sculptural nature of the figure, making it appear to float in the air.

Sometimes overexposed, sometimes underexposed, the seven life-size photographic prints produced in 2021 by Éric Poitevin are an echo of these old images. They reveal different aspects of Zurbarán's painting, which this medium has endlessly reinvented.  

Labels

Éric Poitevin
Born in 1961 in Longuyon (France)
Untitled
2021
Six prints on Berger baryta paper from black and white negative film, laminated and mounted on wooden stretchers, A to F editions
Lyon, Musée des Beaux-Arts
In 2019, Éric Poitevin was invited to bring his own perspective to works at the Musée des Beaux-Arts in Lyon. He chose to use a view camera* to photograph Zurbarán's Saint Francis, producing seven 1:1 scale prints. He favoured the use of black and white and played with the shutter opening times to obtain prints with varying degrees of exposure, accentuating the spectral aspect of the saint. Each print offers a new vision of the original work, revealing details and the material nature of the painting.

* A photographic technique developed in the 19th century, requiring extensive equipment and long exposure times

Jacques-Ernest Bulloz (publisher)
Paris (France), 1858 - 1942
Saint Francis of Assisi, After the Painting by Francisco de Zurbarán in the Musée des Beaux-Arts de Lyon
Ca. 1906
Charcoal print mounted on bristol cardboard
Plate from the album Musée de Lyon, a Collection of 100 Reproductions of the Most Remarkable Works in the Musée de Peinture, published under the patronage of the Lyon City Council and the Commission des Musées de Lyon; honoured by subscriptions from the Ministère de l'Instruction Publique et des Beaux-Arts, 2 volumes, 10 copies, J.E. Bulloz Éditeur, 21 rue Bonaparte, Paris
Lyon, Musée des Beaux-Arts, purchased by subscription around 1904-1906
This photograph comes from an album published by Jacques-Ernest Bulloz, who ran a publishing house specialising in the reproduction of works of art. In 1900, he offered to photograph and publish a selection of one hundred paintings in the collections of the Musée des Beaux-Arts in Lyon. The plates in the ten albums acquired by the Lyon municipality were reserved for educational purposes at the city’s museum, university and school of fine arts, as well as its municipal libraries.