Peter Henry Emerson (1856-1936)

Peter Henry Emerson contributed largely to the renewal of artistic photography in the 1880s and was a precursor of pictorialism. The exhibition devoted to him presented about fifty photographs by this great artist little-known in France.
Two of the most important works by Emerson were displayed. The first, made in 1886, was entitled Life and Landscape of the Norfolk Broads and the second was Marsh Leaves, made in 1895. The public was thus able to observe Emerson’s evolution as he turned from a naturalism fed on J-F. Millet’s painting, yet which he never tried to imitate, to a more and more abstract and poetical evocation of nature, deeply influenced by Whistler’s art and Hokusaï's etchings.