View from the Window at Le Gras

Lore & Background

Niépce captured the scene with a camera obscura projected onto a 16.2 cm × 20.2 cm pewter plate thinly coated with bitumen of Judea. The bitumen hardened in brightly lit areas, while dimly lit areas remained soluble and could be washed away with a mixture of lavender oil and white petroleum. A very long exposure time was required; sunlight striking buildings on opposite sides suggests an exposure of about eight hours, though a modern researcher who studied Niépce's notes and recreated his processes found the exposure must have continued for several days.

In September 1827, Niépce visited the United Kingdom and showed this and other specimens to botanical illustrator Francis Bauer. View from the Window at Le Gras was the only camera photograph among them; the rest were contact-exposed copies of artwork. Bauer encouraged Niépce to present his heliography process to the Royal Society, but Niépce's paper was rejected because he was unwilling to reveal specific details. Before returning to France, Niépce gave his paper and specimens to Bauer. Niépce died suddenly in 1833 due to a stroke.

After the pioneering photographic processes of Louis Daguerre and Henry Fox Talbot were publicly announced in January 1839, Bauer championed Niépce's right to be acknowledged as the first inventor of a process for making permanent photographs. The specimens were exhibited at the Royal Society on March 9, 1839. After Bauer died in 1840, they passed through several hands and were occasionally exhibited. The photograph was last publicly shown in 1905 and then fell into obscurity for 47 years.

Reader's Guide

Historians Helmut Gernsheim and his wife, Alison Gernsheim, tracked down the photograph in 1952 and brought it to prominence, reinforcing the claim that Niépce is the inventor of photography. They had an expert at the Kodak Research Laboratory make a modern photographic copy, but it proved extremely difficult to produce an adequate representation. Helmut Gernsheim heavily retouched one of the copy prints to make the scene more comprehensible, and until the late 1970s he allowed only that enhanced version to be published. It became apparent that at some point after the 1952 copying, the plate was disfigured and developed bumps near three of its corners, interfering with visibility.

During the 1950s and early 1960s, the Gernsheims toured the photograph to several exhibitions in continental Europe. In 1963, Harry Ransom purchased most of the Gernsheims' photography collection for the University of Texas at Austin. It is normally on display in the main lobby of the Harry Ransom Center. In 2003, Life magazine listed it among their 100 Photographs that Changed the World. An article for Art on Paper said it had a 'fair claim' as the first photograph. During a study and conservation project in 2002–2003, scientists at the Getty Conservation Institute examined the photograph using X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy and other techniques, confirming the image consists of bitumen and the plate is pewter. The institute designed an elaborate display case system that now houses the artifact in a continuously monitored, stabilized, oxygen-free environment. In 2007, scientists from the Louvre Museum published an analysis using ion beam analysis, showing details of the oxidation process corroding the image.

Did You Know?

• The photograph was created using heliography, a process Niépce invented around 1822 that uses the hardening of bitumen in light.
• A modern researcher who studied Niépce's notes and recreated his processes found the exposure must have continued for several days, not the traditional estimate of eight hours.
• The photograph was last publicly shown in 1905 and then fell into obscurity for 47 years until historians Helmut and Alison Gernsheim tracked it down in 1952.
• In 2003, Life magazine listed View from the Window at Le Gras among their 100 Photographs that Changed the World.