Printed: 2025-07-08
de Blochouse, Alexandre (& Cie)
Identity
Category
Person (Male)
Alternative name or descriptor
- Société Royale Belge de Photographie
Standardized form(s) of name according to other rules
Status
- Professional / Connected
Details
Life dates
Mons, 1821 - Brussels - Ixelles, 1901
Activity
1869 * - 1885 ca Bruxelles - Ixelles, Rue Keyenveld, 73
Predecessor: Fierlants Edmond Successor: Harcq Henri
° 3.1.1821; + 22.1.1901. An engineer and graduate of the University of Liège, de Blochouse began his career in civil construction. Mayor of Otrange, 1854-1866. "Engineer" of the "Société Royale Belge de Photographie", 1865-1868, he was in charge of financial management, while Edmond Fierlants was the artistic director. From 1869 on he was proprietor and manager of the company. At the beginning he operated in the same market segments as Fierlants: the reproduction of Belgian views and works of art. At the end of 1870, he published a series of 120 reproductions of old paintings, and in 1872, some 50 views of Oudenaarde, Bruges, Brussels, Ghent, Hal, and Ypres to supplement the firm’s catalogue.
Thereafter, de Blochouse decided to reorient the company towards photomechanical printing; for a short period, around 1874, he renamed it "Etablissement Polygraphique". In 1873 and 1874, transformation of the establishment and installation of laboratories and flat-bed presses for collotype. Recorded the construction of the winter garden, centrepiece of the Royal Greenhouses in Laeken, designed by Alphonse Balat, in a series of double-plate albumen prints, 1874-1875. "Album photographique des maisons primées aux nouveaux boulevards à Bruxelles, 1872-1876", c. 1877 containing 20 albumen prints.
"M. de Blochous[e] has a wide, open space of about one acre for his operations. Near its sides are his studios, photolithographic rooms, and a dwelling house. The salon de reception ... contains various specimens of his work. In his grounds, M. de Blochous[e] has a long platform on a turn-table, used to catch the best light, whatever the position of the sun, when photographing paintings. In a shed close at hand is a photographic van - of more use in the days of wet collodion than at present. A portrait studio also stands in the grounds; this branch of the business is now in the hands of the successor of M. de Blochous[e]" ("The Photographic Establishment of M. de Blochous", The British Journal of Photography, 22.8.1884, p. 537). (The site is now occupied by a block of flats constructed in 2001.) In the 1880s, de Blochouse expanded his range to include printing posters, catalogues and prospectuses, the vast majority of which, classified as ephemera, are lost to the historical record. Around 1885, de Blochouse fully retired from management of the company.
Founder member of the ABP; vice-president of the ABP from 1874 until 1881; president from 1883 until 1886; president of the Brussels section from 1880 until 1891. Founder member of the "Société belge de microscopie" in 1874; member of the "Société d’anthropologie de Bruxelles". Resided in Chaudfontaine in 1884; in Widoye-Tongres in 1887. Left Belgium in 1894 to join his son in Brazil. Honorary member of the ABP from this date on. Returned to Belgium in 1897 and lived in Brussels - Ixelles.
Predecessor: Fierlants Edmond Successor: Harcq Henri
° 3.1.1821; + 22.1.1901. An engineer and graduate of the University of Liège, de Blochouse began his career in civil construction. Mayor of Otrange, 1854-1866. "Engineer" of the "Société Royale Belge de Photographie", 1865-1868, he was in charge of financial management, while Edmond Fierlants was the artistic director. From 1869 on he was proprietor and manager of the company. At the beginning he operated in the same market segments as Fierlants: the reproduction of Belgian views and works of art. At the end of 1870, he published a series of 120 reproductions of old paintings, and in 1872, some 50 views of Oudenaarde, Bruges, Brussels, Ghent, Hal, and Ypres to supplement the firm’s catalogue.
Thereafter, de Blochouse decided to reorient the company towards photomechanical printing; for a short period, around 1874, he renamed it "Etablissement Polygraphique". In 1873 and 1874, transformation of the establishment and installation of laboratories and flat-bed presses for collotype. Recorded the construction of the winter garden, centrepiece of the Royal Greenhouses in Laeken, designed by Alphonse Balat, in a series of double-plate albumen prints, 1874-1875. "Album photographique des maisons primées aux nouveaux boulevards à Bruxelles, 1872-1876", c. 1877 containing 20 albumen prints.
"M. de Blochous[e] has a wide, open space of about one acre for his operations. Near its sides are his studios, photolithographic rooms, and a dwelling house. The salon de reception ... contains various specimens of his work. In his grounds, M. de Blochous[e] has a long platform on a turn-table, used to catch the best light, whatever the position of the sun, when photographing paintings. In a shed close at hand is a photographic van - of more use in the days of wet collodion than at present. A portrait studio also stands in the grounds; this branch of the business is now in the hands of the successor of M. de Blochous[e]" ("The Photographic Establishment of M. de Blochous", The British Journal of Photography, 22.8.1884, p. 537). (The site is now occupied by a block of flats constructed in 2001.) In the 1880s, de Blochouse expanded his range to include printing posters, catalogues and prospectuses, the vast majority of which, classified as ephemera, are lost to the historical record. Around 1885, de Blochouse fully retired from management of the company.
Founder member of the ABP; vice-president of the ABP from 1874 until 1881; president from 1883 until 1886; president of the Brussels section from 1880 until 1891. Founder member of the "Société belge de microscopie" in 1874; member of the "Société d’anthropologie de Bruxelles". Resided in Chaudfontaine in 1884; in Widoye-Tongres in 1887. Left Belgium in 1894 to join his son in Brazil. Honorary member of the ABP from this date on. Returned to Belgium in 1897 and lived in Brussels - Ixelles.
Locations
1869 * - 1885 ca Bruxelles - Ixelles, Rue Keyenveld, 73
Exhibitions
Liège, 1867; Paris, 1869; Groningen, 1873; Vienna, 1873; London, 1874; Brussels, 1874; Brussels, 1875 ("director of the Etablissement polygraphique of Brussels - Ixelles"); Brussels, 1880; Ghent, 1880.
Genres / subject matter
Techniques
Bibliography/Webography
Context
Affiliations
Affiliated entity
Association belge de Photographie
Type of affiliation
Member of
Dates of affiliation
1874 - 1901
Description of relationship
Management
Record source
DIRECTORY_1997#995
Status
Level of detail
Dates of creation/revision
SFJ revised 23.12.2023 & 1.3.2025