VIETNAM, XIXe siècle

Important set of photographs on Vietnam Black and white photographic views taken by Dr. Hocquard, Médecin-Major, with the authorization of the General-in-Chief of the Expeditionary Corps 1883-1886. Various subjects including types, animated scenes, handicrafts, landscapes... Over 150 albumen prints mounted on 114 plates, handwritten captions in pencil on mounts and spine Prints: from 9.5 to 15.5 cm to 19 x 25 cm Plates: 35.5 x 46 cm - 34 x 44 cm The prints shown here are probably the first proofs that were later used for the publication of Dr. Hocquard's album "Vues photographiques", edited by Henry Cremnitz, 2 rue Crétet, Paris. Collections : - The Bibliothèque Nationale has in its collections an album presenting a selection of around 50 prints, some similar to those presented here, bearing a number and a caption printed in the images, on printed publisher's cardboard. - The Musée de l'Armée holds an album with 34 views. - The Harvard Art Museums holds a set of some 40 images. Charles-Edouard Hocquard studied medicine at the Ecole d'application du Val-de-Grâce before joining the military hospital in Lyon. Assigned to the 82nd infantry regiment in 1883, he was appointed medical officer second class, and in January 1884 voluntarily embarked for the Tonkin expeditionary corps to take part in France's military campaign in Asia. After a month-long crossing, Dr. Hocquard disembarked at Haiphong in February 1884. He travelled throughout northern and central Vietnam until April 1886. His photographs document the daily life of Tonkinese society: Mandarins and peasants, soldiers and musicians, Annamites and Chinese, notables and prisoners... On his return to Europe, Dr. Hocquard presented his prints at the Antwerp World's Fair in 1885, winning a gold medal. His photographs were published by publisher Henry Cremnitz in the form of an album in 1886. A few years later, he wrote an account of his stay in "Une campagne au Tonkin", illustrated with engravings based on his photographs, in which he commented: "I am 'Ong quan ké dên' (the great mandarin Lantern). [...] the natives sometimes take my darkroom for a sophisticated war machine, sometimes for a big lantern". Bibliography: - Docteur Hocquard, Une campagne au Tonkin. Ouvrage contenant deux cent quarante-sept gravures et deux cartes, Paris, Librairie Hachette et Cie, 1892. This story was previously published in installments in Le Tour du Monde, nouveau journal des voyages, from 1889 to 1891, under the title "Trente mois au Tonkin" ("Thirty months in Tonkin"). - Docteur Hocquard, op. cit. p. 469. Gaston Roullet (1847-1925) was a naval painter, attached in 1885 to the staff of General de Courcy (1827-1887), Commander-in-Chief of the Tonkin Corps. - Laëtitia Desserrières, Cabinet des dessins, des estampes, et de la photographie, Musée de l'Armée, 2013