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Lot Essay
Lewis Morris Rutherfurd, avocat de formation, abandonne sa carrière juridique en 1849 pour se consacrer à sa passion pour les sciences, notamment après un séjour en Europe où il étudie l'optique auprès du professeur Amici. Grâce au petit observatoire qu'il installe en 1856 dans le jardin de sa maison de Manhattan – considéré comme l'un des plus beaux observatoires privés du pays –, il est l'un des premiers à photographier la lune, dès 1858. Non satisfait des résultats obtenus avec un télescope ordinaire, il conçoit vers 1860 un télescope spécialement adapté à la photographie, qu'il teste avec succès en photographiant une éclipse solaire depuis le Labrador. Ses clichés lunaires, remarqués pour la précision de leurs détails et de leurs ombres, seront présentés à la Société française de photographie ainsi qu'à l'Académie des sciences de Paris, et largement reproduits dans les revues scientifiques de l'époque.
Cette photoglyptie reproduit la photographie de la Lune à son premier quartier, prise par Rutherfurd le 6 mars 1865. Ce procédé photomécanique, inventé en 1864 par Walter Woodbury, restitue les tons continus de l'image originale avec une finesse et une richesse de gris alors inégalées, permettant de diffuser largement ce cliché pionnier, notamment dans les portefeuilles d'élèves du cours d'astronomie de l'École polytechnique.
Lewis Morris Rutherfurd, trained as a lawyer, abandoned his legal career in 1849 to devote himself to his passion for science, particularly after a stay in Europe during which he studied optics under Professor Giovanni Battista Amici. Thanks to the small observatory he established in 1856 in the garden of his Manhattan home, regarded as one of the finest private observatories in the United States, he became one of the first photographers to capture the Moon, beginning in 1858. Dissatisfied with the results obtained using a conventional telescope, he designed around 1860 a telescope specifically adapted for photography, which he successfully tested while photographing a solar eclipse from Labrador. His lunar photographs, admired for the precision of their details and shadows, were exhibited at the Société française de photographie and at the Académie des sciences in Paris, and were widely reproduced in the scientific journals of the period.
This photoglyphic print reproduces Rutherfurd’s photograph of the Moon in its first quarter, taken on March 6, 1865. Invented in 1864 by Walter Woodbury, this photomechanical process reproduced the continuous tones of the original image with an unprecedented subtlety and richness of grayscale, allowing this pioneering photograph to circulate widely, notably in the portfolios of students attending astronomy courses at the École Polytechnique.
Cette photoglyptie reproduit la photographie de la Lune à son premier quartier, prise par Rutherfurd le 6 mars 1865. Ce procédé photomécanique, inventé en 1864 par Walter Woodbury, restitue les tons continus de l'image originale avec une finesse et une richesse de gris alors inégalées, permettant de diffuser largement ce cliché pionnier, notamment dans les portefeuilles d'élèves du cours d'astronomie de l'École polytechnique.
Lewis Morris Rutherfurd, trained as a lawyer, abandoned his legal career in 1849 to devote himself to his passion for science, particularly after a stay in Europe during which he studied optics under Professor Giovanni Battista Amici. Thanks to the small observatory he established in 1856 in the garden of his Manhattan home, regarded as one of the finest private observatories in the United States, he became one of the first photographers to capture the Moon, beginning in 1858. Dissatisfied with the results obtained using a conventional telescope, he designed around 1860 a telescope specifically adapted for photography, which he successfully tested while photographing a solar eclipse from Labrador. His lunar photographs, admired for the precision of their details and shadows, were exhibited at the Société française de photographie and at the Académie des sciences in Paris, and were widely reproduced in the scientific journals of the period.
This photoglyphic print reproduces Rutherfurd’s photograph of the Moon in its first quarter, taken on March 6, 1865. Invented in 1864 by Walter Woodbury, this photomechanical process reproduced the continuous tones of the original image with an unprecedented subtlety and richness of grayscale, allowing this pioneering photograph to circulate widely, notably in the portfolios of students attending astronomy courses at the École Polytechnique.