Log in / create account
What's your thing?
 
Search

Endpoint: Frères Séeberger



created on: 1/03/2021
by: Lo55o (12474)
 
 

Person properties

General info :
The Séeberger dynasty, known as the Frères Séeberger; three brothers Jules (1872–1932), Henri (1876-1956) and Louis' (1874-1946) sons Jean (1910-1979) and Albert (1914-1999), pioneered fashion photography in France, beginning in the twentieth century.

Fashion photography began with engravings reproduced from photographs of Leopold-Emile Reutlinger, Nadar and others in the 1890s. After high-quality half-tone reproduction of photographs became possible, most credit as pioneers of the genre goes to the French Baron Adolph de Meyer and the Luxembourgian Edward Steichen who, borrowing his friend’s hand-camera in 1907, candidly photographed dazzlingly-dressed ladies at the Longchamp Racecourse and who by 1911 had been assigned by the French magazine Art et Décoration to produce pictures of dresses by the Parisian designer Paul Poiret, competing with the drawings and pochoir prints earlier, and contemporaneously, used for fashion plates.

A family devoted to the genre was the Séeberger dynasty over two generations. Three brothers Jules (1872–1932), Louis (1874-1946) and Henri (1876-1956) were born to Jean-Baptiste, a Bavarian tradesman who had migrated to France in 1870, and their mother Louise, a widow from Lyon with a daughter Félicie. The second generation, sons of Louis, brothers Jean (1910-1979) and Albert (1914-1999) also inherited a love of photography. Together, their work spans most of the twentieth century and was devoted to elegance and fashion.

The brothers went to Paris for secondary education at the Lycée Rollin where Louis was awarded first prize for drawing. They completed their schooling at the municipal art school Palissy, before Jules and Louis start their training as designers of fabric at the atelier of J. Souchon, a specialist in “high innovations, gowns, ribbons, damask linens, Jacqaurd fabrics and drafting.” From thence came an interest, and much inside knowledge of, fashion.

While the three brothers worked as fabric designers, it was in 1891 that Jules started in evening drawing classes and also picked up photography. After a move to 39 rue Lafayette in the 10th Arr., Louis won the Danton Jeune prize dedicated to a disadvantaged child at the Ville de Paris art school, while Jules won a travel grant to Normandy. In the meantime, the youngest, Henri, enrolled at a school for applied art and also won prizes. After the death of their father in 1894 the family moved to the quieter 13 rue Fénelon.

In 1899 Jules submitted photographs to various contests, an interest soon shared by his brothers, winning prizes in amateur competitions organised by the newspaper Lectures Pour Tous. He experimented with bromoil, especially the Rawlins process. Jules took documentary photography awards in 1903 and 1904 for pictures he made on the Seine riverbanks and in Montmartre. Images by the three brothers, who signed their initials (JHLS) were exhibited and published in various journals and as postcards by the Kunzli brothers and Leopold Verger.

The death of Julius in 1932 and then the declaration of war mark the final withdrawal of Louis and Henry from the family business, and a brief closure during the war mobilization of the next generation of Séebergers, Jean and Albert, Louis’ two sons who retained the name “Séeberger brothers” until closure in 1977. They were assisted by Jean’s wife Suzanne (as secretary) then successively by Albert’s wife Cecile (in editing), Jean’s son Daniel (as assistant), and various collaborators.

After WW2 the brothers continued with fashion photography as their specialty, alongside some industrial commissions, but with increasing studio work with paid fashion models at a new premises 112 boulevard Malesherbes (in the 17th Arr.). While not in the vanguard, they digested the style of the Le Groupe des XV, typified in the work of Philippe Pottier, Pierre Jahan, René-Jacques, and Lucien Lorelle.
Source :
Copied Wikipedia parts under license :
ENA's Seeberger | Séeberger

Magazines

(2 items)

Item number : 38392

Submitted by : Lo55o (12474)
on : 01/03/2021