Return to 19th-Century Salt Print Masterworks: 1840s-1850s   Alphonse De Launay - Patio de los Arrayanes, Alhambra, Granada, Spain Full Size Contact: Alex Novak and Marthe Smith Email: info@vintageworks.net Phone: +1-215-822-5662 Company: Contemporary Works / Vintage Works, Ltd. Company: 258 Inverness Circle Company: Chalfont, PA   18914   USA URL: http://www.vintageworks.net Ref.#: 10624 Price: P.O.R. Medium: Albumenized salt print from a paper negative Mount: on original mount Image Date: 1854 Print Date: 1854 Dimensions: 10 x 13-5/8 in. (254 x 346 mm) Photo Country: Spain Photographer Country: France Description: The number 32 is reversed out of the negative in Le Gray or an assistant's hand. The walls of the Torre de Comares can be seen rising over the roof to the north. Alphonse De Launay was born in 1827 in Manche, which is the most westerly Département of Normandy in France. He traveled to Spain and Algiers in 1851 and 1854, and the paper negatives that he made there amazed many of his contemporaries in photography. De Launay was undoubtedly a student of the noted French artist-photographer Gustave Le Gray and may have known several other photographers, including other Le Gray students, F.E. Le Dien and Theodore de Banville. De Launay's work in Algeria and Tunisia had been confused with Le Dien's work until just recently when images attributed to Le Dien appeared with De Launey's signature on them. His early larger photographs were paper negatives, probably waxed in the Le Gray style, that were then printed by Le Gray or his studio as albumenized salt prints. De Launay joined the Societe Francaise de Photographie (S.F.P.) in 1858, and he reportedly (in contemporary accounts by noted French art critic Philippe Burty) exhibited four portraits there in 1859, although the name reported then was Delaunay and might be another photographer's work. He died in 1906. Shipping and insurance costs will be added to the price and must be paid for by the buyer. Pennsylvania and New York buyers must pay appropriate sales tax. International clients are responsible for their VAT and other custom's oriented charges.