Florenville, Auguste

Identity

Category

Person (Male)

Alternative name or descriptor

Standardized form(s) of name according to other rules

Status

  • Amateur

Details

Life dates

Liège, 1807 - Liège, 1887

Activity

1839 * - 1887 + Liège
Auguste Gerard César Désiré Jacob, known as Florenville, ° 1.12.1807; + 25.4.1887. Official in the provincial government, where he ended his career as secretary to the governor in 1867. He participated in the Revolution of 1830, as a second lieutenant in the civil militia, at the skirmishes of Oreye and Sainte-Walburge. Captain of the civil militia, 1848, later major. Knight of the Order of Leopold. Jury member of the photographic section at the exhibition of industrial arts, Brussels, 1861, together with Edmond Fierlants and Joseph Dupont. Founder member of the ABP.
Claims to the title of first photographer in Belgium were made by Florenville. Indisputably he was one of the first amateurs active in Belgium. No historical source confirms an "apprenticeship" with Daguerre in 1839, nor the existence of a portrait of a young girl "September 1839 - 7 minutes exposure at 2 pm", first mentioned in the "Bulletin de l'ABP", November 1875, p. 201: in an after-dinner speech, Florenville was called the doyen of photography in Belgium.
He documented the aftermath of a fire that devastated the village of Ninane on 28.3.1859. "Mr Florenville, a highly skilled amateur photographer, has [...] taken several stereoscopic views which will be sold for the benefit of victims of the conflagration" (La Meuse, 12.4.1859).

Locations

1839 * - 1887 + Liège

Exhibitions

Brussels, 1875 (reproductions of paintings); Brussels, 1880 ("Daguerrian prints, transparent negatives on waxed paper, Taupenot process, and positives on paper derived from these negatives, camera and lenses, 1850").

Genres / subject matter

Techniques

Bibliography/Webography

Context

Affiliations

Affiliated entity

Association belge de Photographie

Type of affiliation

Member of

Dates of affiliation

1874 - 1887

Description of relationship

Management

Record source

DIRECTORY_1997#1680

Status

Level of detail

Dates of creation/revision

SFJ revised 23.1.2018; MD revised 25.4.2023

Language(s)

Script(s)

Sources

Maintenance notes

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