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.)

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

Language(s)

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Maintenance notes

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