#1851

A three-headed Satan sits on a throne: bearing antlers, with faces emerging from chest, groin, and knees. From a French manuscript of the 15th century.

Christian iconography. 1851.

Sculpture of Angel, Sainte-Chapelle, Paris (circa 1851)

Auguste Mestral (1812–1884) was a pioneering French photographer who helped establish photography as both an art and a documentary medium. Born to a middle‑class family in southeastern France, he trained in mathematics, physics, and drawing, apprenticed with lens‑makers and chemists, and learned calotype and later wet collodion techniques. Beginning in the mid‑1830s, he produced carefully composed, atmospheric images of architecture, landscapes, portraits, and modern infrastructure (e.g., Paris landmarks, railways, the 1867 Exposition, Franco‑Prussian War scenes). Mestral advanced chemical formulations, exposure and printing methods, lectured and wrote to professionalize the field, mentored younger photographers, and exhibited widely. Reserved and meticulous, he never married and worked despite health issues likely from chemical exposure. His works are preserved in museums and archives and his legacy influenced generations of photographers and the development of photographic practice.