Graphic Games and Semantics in the Albums of the Marquise de Nadaillac
Acquired by the Médiathèque du Patrimoine et de la Photographie (MPP) in 2020, the nine albums of the Marquise de Nadaillac, compiled between the years 1860 and 1907, form a unique set in French collections. More than 3,000 prints and printed images documenting the world’s curiosities are displayed on the boards, which are also adorned with drawn or painted compositions. The albums’ likely designers, including Marie-Édith de Nadaillac (1825–1907) and her daughter, Hélène de Florian (1851–1904), solicited at least fifteen additional hands, a priori female, in an approach reminiscent of Victorian aristocrats and their composite albums. This essay situates these albums within the context of this production and explores their complexity. It also examines the relationships between photography and drawings from both a graphic approach focused on images, and a material approach focused on their medium.
« Venise », album Italie I (D) de la marquise de Nadaillac, p. 71, circa 1870-1907, deux tirages contrecollés et un dessin à la plume et à l’aquarelle, environ 60 x 50 cm (dimension de l’album). Charenton-le-Pont, Médiathèque du Patrimoine et de la Photographie.
Mathilde Falguière-Léonard, a curator of cultural heritage, is a former student of the Paris Institute of Political Studies, the University of Paris I and the National Heritage Institute. She has been responsible for the Photography Department of the Heritage and Photography Media Library (MPP) since 2015. In addition to publishing recent work on contemporary photographers in dialogue with the MPP collections (Ivan Segura Lara, Payram, Anne Garde), she has designed exhibitions and publications on photography in the Orient in the 19th century and on colour photography. As an initiator of the purchase of the Marquise de Nadaillac’s albums, she has focused particularly on the albums’ drawings.
Keywords: photo albums, composite images, drawing, women, collective work, aristocracy, scrapbooking
Citation: Mathilde Falguière, « Malicieuse marquise. Jeux graphiques et sémantiques dans les albums de la marquise de Nadaillac », Transbordeur. Photographie histoire société, no. 7, 2023, pp. 110-123.