Printed: 2024-12-21
Montefiore - Levi, Georges
Identity
Category
Person (Male)
Alternative name or descriptor
Standardized form(s) of name according to other rules
Status
- Amateur
Details
Life dates
London - Streatham [GB], 1832 - Brussels, 1906
Activity
1854 - 1906 + Bruxelles
° 8.2.1832; + 24.4.1906. Engineer, industrialist, senator and philanthropist. Manufacturing engineer educated at the "Ecole Centrale de Bruxelles" and the "Ecole des Mines de Liège" (1852). Calotypes in 1854, including a view of the turret of the hydraulic machine for pumping water to the centre of Brussels. Invented an "apparatus for rapidly unclosing and covering lenses" (Journal of the Photographic Society of London, 1854, pp. 162-163). Devised a tent for processing collodion negatives in the field (Journal of the Photographic Society of London, 1857, pp. 43-44).
Proprietor of works for phosphor bronze smelting and wire-drawing in Brussels - Anderlecht and Saint-Denis (Paris). Naturalised Belgian in 1882. President of the International Monetary Conference, 1892. Creator of the first electro-technical institute in the world, named after him; the Montefiore Institute is incorporated into the University of Liège. Member of the ABP from 10.11.1874. President of the ABP from 1877 until 1880. Also lived at Rond-Chêne castle in Esneux. "Mr Montefiore-Levy, on a recent trip to the East...employed the "Ultime" [camera manufactured by Louis Van Neck] and can confirm its good reputation" (Hélios illustré, 1.6.1890, p. 19).
Three of Georges' brothers living abroad were also amateur photographers. His brother Octavius Montefiore (c. 1834 - 1893), a merchant and amateur photographer in Sydney, Australia, was a corresponding member of the ABP, 1878-1889. Another brother, Eliezer Levi Montefiore (° Bridgetown [Barbados], 1820; + Sydney [AUS], 22.10.1894), also resident in Sydney, was a corresponding member of the ABP, 1875-1894, whereas Edouard Levi Montefiore (° London [GB], 7.3.1826; + ?, 1907), an engineer resident in Paris, was a corresponding member of the ABP, 1874-1885.
° 8.2.1832; + 24.4.1906. Engineer, industrialist, senator and philanthropist. Manufacturing engineer educated at the "Ecole Centrale de Bruxelles" and the "Ecole des Mines de Liège" (1852). Calotypes in 1854, including a view of the turret of the hydraulic machine for pumping water to the centre of Brussels. Invented an "apparatus for rapidly unclosing and covering lenses" (Journal of the Photographic Society of London, 1854, pp. 162-163). Devised a tent for processing collodion negatives in the field (Journal of the Photographic Society of London, 1857, pp. 43-44).
Proprietor of works for phosphor bronze smelting and wire-drawing in Brussels - Anderlecht and Saint-Denis (Paris). Naturalised Belgian in 1882. President of the International Monetary Conference, 1892. Creator of the first electro-technical institute in the world, named after him; the Montefiore Institute is incorporated into the University of Liège. Member of the ABP from 10.11.1874. President of the ABP from 1877 until 1880. Also lived at Rond-Chêne castle in Esneux. "Mr Montefiore-Levy, on a recent trip to the East...employed the "Ultime" [camera manufactured by Louis Van Neck] and can confirm its good reputation" (Hélios illustré, 1.6.1890, p. 19).
Three of Georges' brothers living abroad were also amateur photographers. His brother Octavius Montefiore (c. 1834 - 1893), a merchant and amateur photographer in Sydney, Australia, was a corresponding member of the ABP, 1878-1889. Another brother, Eliezer Levi Montefiore (° Bridgetown [Barbados], 1820; + Sydney [AUS], 22.10.1894), also resident in Sydney, was a corresponding member of the ABP, 1875-1894, whereas Edouard Levi Montefiore (° London [GB], 7.3.1826; + ?, 1907), an engineer resident in Paris, was a corresponding member of the ABP, 1874-1885.
Locations
1854 - 1906 + Bruxelles
Exhibitions
London, 1858 (four subjects from collodion negatives).
Genres / subject matter
Techniques
Bibliography/Webography
STOCKMANS, François. "Georges Montefiore-Levi" in Biographie nationale, vol. 38, supplement vol. 10, Brussels, Emile Bruylant, 1973, col. 596-616.
HUDSON, Hugh. "Amateur Photography in the Nineteenth-Century Jewish Diaspora: The Colonial, National, and Transnational Aspects of a Montefiore Family Album", History of Photography, vol. 43 no. 3 (2019), pp. 266-283.
HUDSON, Hugh. "Amateur Photography in the Nineteenth-Century Jewish Diaspora: The Colonial, National, and Transnational Aspects of a Montefiore Family Album", History of Photography, vol. 43 no. 3 (2019), pp. 266-283.
Context
Affiliations
Affiliated entity
Association belge de Photographie
Type of affiliation
Member of
Dates of affiliation
1874 - 1906
Description of relationship
Management
Record source
DIRECTORY_1997#3122
Status
Level of detail
Dates of creation/revision
SFJ revised 2.5.2018, 31.5.2018, 8.12.2018, 1.1.2019 & 8.7.2020; SFJ revised 24.3.2020 & 18.8.2024 based on information supplied by M. Demaeght