Robert Demachy

Nationality

French

Lifetime

1859-1936

Biography

Robert Demachy French, 1859-1936 Born in Saint-Germain-en-Laye, Robert Demachy was a banker of independent means whose rarefied and varied interests ranged from racing cars to music, literature, and art. His American wife, Julia Adelia Delano, was related to Franklin Roosevelt. In the field of photography, Demachy was both practitioner and theoretician, writing five books and more than 1,000 articles on aesthetic and technical issues. He was a leader in the manipulative style in which the negative was used as the basis for producing prints that approached aquatint and other intaglio media in their overtly artistic, handworked qualities. He was especially known for his work with the gum bichromate and oil printing processes, the latter of which he pioneered and developed with Alfred Maskell. He later abandoned photography for sketching and drawing. Demachy's photographs often have the quality of paintings, drawings, or intaglio prints and are frequently printed in color. His varied subject matter is often treated in an idealized manner, characteristic of the pictorialism prevalent during the time he worked (roughly 1880-1914). Demachy was a member of the Société française de photographie, the Linked Ring, and the Photo-Secession. In 1894 he helped to found the Photo Club de Paris. He was also a member of honor of the Royal Photographic Society and a chevalier of the Légion d'honneur. T.W.F.

Artworks

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Camera Work: A Model

Robert Demachy

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Camera Work: Behind the Scenes

Robert Demachy

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Camera Work

A. Horsley Hinton

Alfred Stieglitz

Alice M. Boughton

Alvin Langdon Coburn

Anne W. Brigman

Arthur Allen Lewis

Arthur Radclyffe Dugmore

Baron Adolph de Meyer

C. Yarnall Abbott

Clarence H. White

David Octavius Hill

E.M. Bane

Edward Steichen

Ema Spencer

Eva Watson-Schutze

F. Benedict Herzog

Francis Bruguière

Frank Eugene

Frederick H. Evans

Frederick H. Pratt

George Davison

George Bernard Shaw

George H. Seeley

Gertrude Käsebier

Guido Rey

Hans Watzek

Harold Mortimer-Lamb

Harry Rubincam

Heinrich Kuehn

Herbert G. French

Hugo Henneberg

J. Craig Annan

John Francis Strauss

Joseph T. Keiley

Julia Margaret Cameron

Karl F. Struss

Marshall R. Kernochan

Oskar Hofmeister

Paul Strand

Paul B. Haviland

Prescott Adamson

René Le Bègue

Robert Adamson

Robert Demachy

Sarah C. Sears

Theodor Hofmeister

W.W. Renwick

William B. Dyer

William B. Post

William E. Wilmerding