The Counselor of Culture and Sports, Patricia del Pozo, has presented the new temporary exhibition at the Museum of Fine Arts in Seville dedicated to the work of Francisco Leygonier, the first of the Sevillian photographers. Curated by Juan Antonio Fernández Rivero and María Teresa García Ballesteros, it brings together a total of 81 works by the Sevillian photographer in various formats: calotypes, albumins, lithographs, visiting cards, daguerreotypes, facsimiles, two photo albums, and even an oil painting.
«The exhibition dedicated to Leygonier is of enormous interest to understand both the origins of photography and the Andalusia of the early contemporary period,» said Patricia del Pozo, highlighting the «absolutely pioneering nature of this photographer, who kept his studio in Seville open for 35 years.»
«Francisco Leygonier, Luis Masson, who was the subject of a major exhibition at the Museum of Fine Arts in Seville in 2021, and Emilio Beauchy are part of that trilogy of pioneering photographers who, from Seville, contributed to developing the emerging art of photography with extraordinary quality,» summarized del Pozo.
Leygonier mainly photographed views and monuments of Seville, such as the Cathedral, the Giralda, the Alcázar, the Casa de Pilatos, and the Caridad. Additionally, in order to expand his offerings and meet the demands of his clientele, he traveled to Córdoba and Granada to capture images of their heritage, took portraits for inclusion in popular visiting cards, created reproductions of paintings and captured images of festivals and processions, such as those of Holy Week.
«Many of these images were purchased by travelers who, in those years, began to arrive in the city, giving rise to the nascent tourism industry,» noted Del Pozo.
Among his clients, the Duke of Montpensier stood out, a great lover of the arts, who, in addition to acquiring some of his views, commissioned numerous reports, such as the hermitage of the Virgin of Valme, his booth at the Fair, or the reproductions of the oil collection he kept at San Telmo.
All of these images can be seen in this exhibition, largely comprised of works from the Fernández Rivero collection, as well as other originals from the Archive and Municipal Photo Library of Seville, and two private collections: Carlos Sánchez’s from Granada, and Narbona Algara’s from Madrid.
Leygonier’s primitive calotypes are the best-known part of his work, as many of them are preserved in the collections of major museums. However, his albumins have not been studied until now, making this exhibition the first to showcase this important part of the production of a photographer who was always very attentive to the innovations of his time.
Francisco Leygonier (Seville 1808-1883)
Leygonier’s case is unique because his early photographic activity transcended the city of Seville to become a true pioneer in the use of the daguerreotype and calotype in Andalusia and Spain. His photographic works amazed not only Sevillians but also caught the attention of the Madrid press in the early 1850s.
Born in Seville in 1808 into a family of French origin settled in the city for generations, the early death of his father led him to settle in the neighboring country, at the home of his older sister, married to a Napoleonic army officer. There, he joined the French Royal Navy, where he rose from a cabin boy to a captain, sailing around the world. However, in 1840, photography crossed his path, leading him to leave the sea to open a studio in Bordeaux.
In 1845, at 33 years old, he settled in Seville, shrouded in a certain mystery due to his French origin and his previous profession as a sailor. He practiced the daguerreotype technique, which he alternated with the calotype from very early dates. Information about these early steps is scarce, but it is documented that he presented several daguerreotypes at the exhibition of the Economic Society of Friends of the Country in 1849. From 1851, news in the press about his activities and services as a professional photographer were continuous.
His curiosity led him to successively incorporate techniques such as the calotype, which he continued to use until the mid-1850s, alternating with the new proposal of wet collodion plates and albumen paper. He offered portraits in the format of a visiting card from 1857 and introduced stereoscopic photography in an attempt to gain market share in an increasingly competitive professional context.
The arrival of the Dukes of Montpensier in Seville in the early 1850s brought his photographs of the city to light in a catalog, which in the following years expanded with images of Granada and Córdoba. The French nobleman commissioned sporadic reports, including the famous collection of paintings by the duke. Leygonier, who combined his work with teaching photography, passed away in Seville in 1883.
Exhibition catalog and Fernández Rivero collection
Juan Antonio Fernández Rivero and María Teresa García Ballesteros have been dedicated to the world of the history of photography for more than 25 years. In the beginning, they compiled images from Malaga and later expanded their interest to form an extensive collection of historical Spanish and international photography.
In 2021, they collaborated with the Museum of Fine Arts in Seville to exhibit a show dedicated to another pioneering photographer of Seville, Luis Masson.
They have also produced various publications on the history of photography in the form of books, articles, and lectures, including volumes like ‘Three Dimensions in the History of Photography: The Stereoscopic Image’ (2004) and ‘Discovering Luis Masson. Photographer in 19th-century Spain’ (2017).
To mark the celebration of the exhibition dedicated to Francisco Leygonier, the Ministry of Culture and Sports has published a catalog that includes a comprehensive study by both curators. The work includes, among the exhibited works and illustrations in the text, the vast majority of Leygonier’s known production, making it a fundamental work for understanding the history of photography in Spain.