45 - Pancrace BESSA (1772–1846)

Pancrace BESSA (1772–1846) The Church of Saint-Acceul as seen from the painter’s home Écouen, circa July 1844. Daguerreotype, half-plate, horizontal, image not straightened. Set in a white mat with an octagonal window and black border. Hallmarks: eight-pointed rosette within a circle; 30 within a rectangular cartouche (marked 1/30). 16.8 x 10 cm (image area) Provenance House in Écouen; discovered about forty years ago along with two other plates from the same set. Above the rooftops, gardens, and a chimney stump, the Church of Saint-Acceul and its clock tower, as seen from the painter’s house on Rue de la Beauvette (now Rue Auguste-Schenck). The street has been identified and the vantage point verified on site. The clock face is reversed. A view of Écouen by the town’s only known daguerreotypist—a flower painter, student of van Spaendonck, and collaborator of Redouté—who experimented with the process at over seventy years of age alongside his son Louis-Maximilien.