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Lot Essay
Dr. Eugéne Louis Doyen's design for a colour cinematographic camera, ('Appareils pour la tri-cinématographie, soit en noir, soit en couleurs.....'), was subject to French patent no. 444119, 30th July 1912, and published on 10th October 1912.
This is the only known example of this camera and is extensively stamped '1'. It is very likely that this is the only example ever made.
The famous French surgeon Dr Eugène Louis Doyen (1859-1916) started filming operations as early as 1898. By 1903 he had already experimented with stereoscopic filming. His surgical films were parodied by the film maker Georges Méliès. In 1912 he designed and patented a motion picture colour camera with the intention of filming his operations in colour.
The camera is based on the additive colour arrangement, and uses black and white film stock which has been specially treated to make it responsive to the colours green, blue and red. The film strips pass simultaneously through a triple gate with three lenses and three corresponding coloured-glass filters. The fine-screw adjustment on the lenses ensures that the three images are in exact register with the perforations on the film strips. Three motion picture records are taken simultaneously; a black and white print is made from each negative, and the results projected in register through the corresponding colour filters in a special projector. The result on the screen is a colour motion picture of surprising fidelity.
Doyen also designed a projector based on the same priciple of using three strips of black and white film projecting through three coloured filters. This arrangement would have been unsuitable for widespread use in cinemas, but perfectly feasible for specialist use. No example of this projector is known to have survived.
The appearance of the Cinématographe in 1895 had enormous repurcussions. It is probable that Dr. Doyen himself attended the first Lumière brothers presentations at the Société d'encouragement a l'industrie Nationale de Paris in March 1895: (see lot 52). The famous surgeon was so interested in different microphotographic procedures that he became a member of the French Photographic Society in July 1892, and subsequently participated in numerous national and international expositions.
Doyen's interests were undoubtedly inspired by his father, mayor and emeritus professor of medicine in Rheims. In 1885, Doyen wrote his thesis on "anatomic and experimental research on the cholera epidemic" and set himself up as a surgeon. His operating technique was rapid and almost brutal, but appearently quite effective; his craniectomies, amputations and hysterectomies fascinated contemporaries.
However, Eugéne Doyen was not the first to dream of surgical cinematography. In June 1898 he asked Krauss, an optician, to put him in contact with two cinematographers: Clément Maurice, who had organised the famous Lumière Cinématographe demonstration at the Grand Café on 28th December 1895, and Ambroise-François Parnaland, one of the great artisans and authors of the time.
The men were given two cameras to film a craniectomy carried out by Doyen himself; soon other filmed operations followed. At the annual reunion of the British Medical Association in Edinburgh on 29th July 1898, Doyen presented two films showing his specialisms - abdominal hysterectomy and a craniectomy. These are now regarded as the first surgical films. On the 21st October of the same year, Doyen presented his films at hotel in Paris. This was the first official projection of surgical films in France
Thierry Lefebvre quotes Doyen on his films [sic]: "I have demonstrated how much success I have made of these cinematographic films, and how pleased at being able to reflect on the operations of previous days. I see myself surveying the state of the patient and work to perfect my technique."
"His work was projected all over Europe at private demonstrations and was popular with Tzar of Russia and the Emperor of Germany. Charles Pathé and Parmaland were sued for showing Doyen's films without his permission or knowledge and were ordered to pay him compensation.
In Feb 1902, he filmed the separation of Siamese Twins (The Barnum circus twins). Doyen showed this to the congress of Surgery of Berlin on 2nd of April 1902, and then to the Academy of Medecine of Paris on 8th of April. On the 9th of April, the Tribune Medicale published an letter accusing him of interfering with nature dishonouring the medical profession.
Doyen left Clément Maurice to go to the Urban Rogers Trading Company (future Society General of Eclipse Cinematographs) in order to get his films published and marketed. In exhange he got 20,000 Francs but handed over the commercial rights to his films, which were marketed under the 'Eclipse' label. The surgical films were regrouped into a successive series, re-edited by the surgeon himself, composed of between four to six films, each film about 4-minutes in length. They were distributed wideley but clearly among specialised circles.
In 1914 Doyen wrote a letter to Alfred H Sanders who worked for the Colonial Motion Picture Co. of New York, in which he describes his new colour cinématographe which allowas him to film operations in beautiful colour.
The first world war undoubtibly prevented Doyen from realising his dream of surgical colour motion picture photography. He died two years later on 21st November 1916 in brutal circumstances. The influence of his films was considerable, especially in Russia and Germany - Professor Jean-Louis Faure describes Doyen as the unquestionable pioneer of the technique of making surgical films. In his last written work in 1899, Doyen writes: [sic], 'Surgical cinematography represents a record which can be preserved and kept as a document of surgical history.' "
Until the recent discovery of this camera, all examples of Doyen's work in colour cinematography were thought be have been lost.
This is the only known example of this camera and is extensively stamped '1'. It is very likely that this is the only example ever made.
The famous French surgeon Dr Eugène Louis Doyen (1859-1916) started filming operations as early as 1898. By 1903 he had already experimented with stereoscopic filming. His surgical films were parodied by the film maker Georges Méliès. In 1912 he designed and patented a motion picture colour camera with the intention of filming his operations in colour.
The camera is based on the additive colour arrangement, and uses black and white film stock which has been specially treated to make it responsive to the colours green, blue and red. The film strips pass simultaneously through a triple gate with three lenses and three corresponding coloured-glass filters. The fine-screw adjustment on the lenses ensures that the three images are in exact register with the perforations on the film strips. Three motion picture records are taken simultaneously; a black and white print is made from each negative, and the results projected in register through the corresponding colour filters in a special projector. The result on the screen is a colour motion picture of surprising fidelity.
Doyen also designed a projector based on the same priciple of using three strips of black and white film projecting through three coloured filters. This arrangement would have been unsuitable for widespread use in cinemas, but perfectly feasible for specialist use. No example of this projector is known to have survived.
The appearance of the Cinématographe in 1895 had enormous repurcussions. It is probable that Dr. Doyen himself attended the first Lumière brothers presentations at the Société d'encouragement a l'industrie Nationale de Paris in March 1895: (see lot 52). The famous surgeon was so interested in different microphotographic procedures that he became a member of the French Photographic Society in July 1892, and subsequently participated in numerous national and international expositions.
Doyen's interests were undoubtedly inspired by his father, mayor and emeritus professor of medicine in Rheims. In 1885, Doyen wrote his thesis on "anatomic and experimental research on the cholera epidemic" and set himself up as a surgeon. His operating technique was rapid and almost brutal, but appearently quite effective; his craniectomies, amputations and hysterectomies fascinated contemporaries.
However, Eugéne Doyen was not the first to dream of surgical cinematography. In June 1898 he asked Krauss, an optician, to put him in contact with two cinematographers: Clément Maurice, who had organised the famous Lumière Cinématographe demonstration at the Grand Café on 28th December 1895, and Ambroise-François Parnaland, one of the great artisans and authors of the time.
The men were given two cameras to film a craniectomy carried out by Doyen himself; soon other filmed operations followed. At the annual reunion of the British Medical Association in Edinburgh on 29th July 1898, Doyen presented two films showing his specialisms - abdominal hysterectomy and a craniectomy. These are now regarded as the first surgical films. On the 21st October of the same year, Doyen presented his films at hotel in Paris. This was the first official projection of surgical films in France
Thierry Lefebvre quotes Doyen on his films [sic]: "I have demonstrated how much success I have made of these cinematographic films, and how pleased at being able to reflect on the operations of previous days. I see myself surveying the state of the patient and work to perfect my technique."
"His work was projected all over Europe at private demonstrations and was popular with Tzar of Russia and the Emperor of Germany. Charles Pathé and Parmaland were sued for showing Doyen's films without his permission or knowledge and were ordered to pay him compensation.
In Feb 1902, he filmed the separation of Siamese Twins (The Barnum circus twins). Doyen showed this to the congress of Surgery of Berlin on 2nd of April 1902, and then to the Academy of Medecine of Paris on 8th of April. On the 9th of April, the Tribune Medicale published an letter accusing him of interfering with nature dishonouring the medical profession.
Doyen left Clément Maurice to go to the Urban Rogers Trading Company (future Society General of Eclipse Cinematographs) in order to get his films published and marketed. In exhange he got 20,000 Francs but handed over the commercial rights to his films, which were marketed under the 'Eclipse' label. The surgical films were regrouped into a successive series, re-edited by the surgeon himself, composed of between four to six films, each film about 4-minutes in length. They were distributed wideley but clearly among specialised circles.
In 1914 Doyen wrote a letter to Alfred H Sanders who worked for the Colonial Motion Picture Co. of New York, in which he describes his new colour cinématographe which allowas him to film operations in beautiful colour.
The first world war undoubtibly prevented Doyen from realising his dream of surgical colour motion picture photography. He died two years later on 21st November 1916 in brutal circumstances. The influence of his films was considerable, especially in Russia and Germany - Professor Jean-Louis Faure describes Doyen as the unquestionable pioneer of the technique of making surgical films. In his last written work in 1899, Doyen writes: [sic], 'Surgical cinematography represents a record which can be preserved and kept as a document of surgical history.' "
Until the recent discovery of this camera, all examples of Doyen's work in colour cinematography were thought be have been lost.