Printed: 2024-12-26
Buschmann, Joseph-Ernest
Identity
Category
Person (Male)
Alternative name or descriptor
Standardized form(s) of name according to other rules
Status
- Amateur
Details
Life dates
Septfontaines [L], 1814 - Ghent, 1853
Activity
1847 ca - 1850 Anvers
° 13.9.1814; + 16.2.1853. Man of letters and publisher. He settled in Antwerp in 1838 and founded his publishing house in 1842. Output included significant works of the nascent Flemish literary movement, in particular by Hendrik Conscience (1812 - 1883). Brother-in-law of the painter Henry Leys (1815 - 1869), who advised Buschmann about his amateur painting. Around 1847, he made daguerreotypes and calotypes (portraits, views and reproductions of paintings in his collection). At the end of 1849, he came into contact with Guillaume Claine. Following a prolific correspondence, they started experimenting together the process of negative on glass / paper positive. Their collaboration only lasted until November 1850, when Buschmann’s obsession with photographic research became a symptom of impending insanity. His family placed him in a mental asylum, where he remained until his death.
"By what signs was [the patient’s] madness recognised? It is through his neglect of the affairs which in a normal state would have interested him most, by the passion with which he devoted himself to his photographic studies and by an obsession, quite unfounded, with making millions through new discoveries in this science, that we recognised his madness." (Extract from a questionnaire completed by J.-E. Buschmann’s family on 28.11.1850.)
° 13.9.1814; + 16.2.1853. Man of letters and publisher. He settled in Antwerp in 1838 and founded his publishing house in 1842. Output included significant works of the nascent Flemish literary movement, in particular by Hendrik Conscience (1812 - 1883). Brother-in-law of the painter Henry Leys (1815 - 1869), who advised Buschmann about his amateur painting. Around 1847, he made daguerreotypes and calotypes (portraits, views and reproductions of paintings in his collection). At the end of 1849, he came into contact with Guillaume Claine. Following a prolific correspondence, they started experimenting together the process of negative on glass / paper positive. Their collaboration only lasted until November 1850, when Buschmann’s obsession with photographic research became a symptom of impending insanity. His family placed him in a mental asylum, where he remained until his death.
"By what signs was [the patient’s] madness recognised? It is through his neglect of the affairs which in a normal state would have interested him most, by the passion with which he devoted himself to his photographic studies and by an obsession, quite unfounded, with making millions through new discoveries in this science, that we recognised his madness." (Extract from a questionnaire completed by J.-E. Buschmann’s family on 28.11.1850.)
Locations
1847 ca - 1850 Anvers
Exhibitions
Genres / subject matter
Techniques
Bibliography/Webography
JOSEPH, S.F. & SCHWILDEN, T. A l'aube de la photographie en Belgique: Guillaume Claine (1811-1869) et son cercle. Brussels, 1991, 120 pp.
Context
Affiliations
Management
Record source
DIRECTORY_1997#532
Status
Level of detail
Dates of creation/revision
SFJ revised 5.6.2018