Pierre-Gustave Joly de Lotbinière
Gaspard-Pierre-Gustave Joly de Lotbinière, born in 1798 in Frauenfeld and died in 1865 in Paris, was a French merchant and photographer born in switzerland, married to a Canadian seigneuress. Famous for being the first to photograph the Acropolis and then the Egyptian Pyramids with Horace Vernet and Frédéric Goupil-Fesquet. He is also the father of sir Henri-Gustave Joly de Lotbinière, premier of Quebec from 1878 to 1879.
Biography
Born on 5 in Switzerland, Gaspard-Pierre-Gustave Joly is the son of Antoine Joly de Marval, merchant and of Ursula Fehr de Brunner. His family settled down at Épernay, in Champagne, in the begining of the 20th century where they specialized in wine trading. While hte father and the eldest son, Moïse-Salomon, remained in Épernay, Pierre-Gustave visit European capitals to find new buyers. Saint Petersburg, Copenhague, Amsterdam, his travels carried his even in América where the merchant is introduce in New York and Montréal's society.
In Montréal, he meet with Julie-Christine Chartier de Lotbinière, young 18 years old spinster owner of the seigneurie de Lotbinière near Quebec City, whom he married in 1828. After his wedding, he unofficialy add "de Lotbinière" to his name. He will then spend his time traveling between France and Canada, managing his wife seigneurie and his investements in French Guyana and Canadian railroad. He will also build one the Platon Point in Ste-Croix-de-Lotibnière, his summer estate known today as the Domaine Joly-De Lotbinière.
Le 19 août 1839, il est à Paris lorsque Jacques Daguerre présente le premier appareil photographique au monde scientifique. Prévoyant un voyage en Orient, Pierre-Gustave acquiert un de ses appareils de Noël Paymal Lerebours et entreprend son voyage. Après la Grèce, il se dirige vers l'Égypte. Sur place, il rencontre Horace Vernet et son neveu, Frédéric Goupil-Fesquet avec qui il poursuivra son voyage. Il parcoura aussi la Palestine, la Syrie et la Turquie. À son retour, il publiera ses photographies dans Excursions daguerriennes et dans Panorama d'Égypte et de Nubie. Aucune photographie ne lui est connue après ce voyage.
En 1861, après 33 ans de vie commune, Joly se sépare de son épouse et laisse ses possessions canadiennes à son fils aîné, Henri-Gustave. Il s'éteint à Paris le 18 et est enterré au cimetière Montmartre.
Selected photographs
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The Parthénon of Athenes -
The Propyleae of Athenes -
Kiosk of Trajan in Philæ Island -
Damas Muslim cemetery
Sources
- Joly de Lotbinière Family Collection, Bibliothèques et Archives nationales du Québec, Cote P351,S3
- Eleanor Brown, « The world's first daguerreotype images : Canadian travel photographer Pierre Gustave Gaspard Joly de Lotbinière», in The Archivist n°118, November 1999, pp. 22 à 29
- Leclerc, Hélène (2002). Fides (ed.). Domaine Joly-De Lotibnière. ISBN 978-2-7621-2356-2.
