Biography

Discussion

The cityscape and the architectural photograph are rare in the early history of Dutch photography. Around 1855—fifteen years after photography was invented—Herman Bückmann produced several cityscapes and architectural photographs of The Hague and its environs. They are the earliest photos of the city. Together with the calotypes of Rotterdam made at the end of the 1840s by the English photographer J. Sherrington, Bückmann’s photos are the only surviving Dutch cityscapes made with the calotype technique from the period prior to the appearance of the photographic industries in the second half of the 1850s. This makes Bückmann’s position—one of the first topographic photographers in the Netherlands—quite unique.

In 1851, Bückmann set up a photo studio in his parental home on the Maliestraat, as confirmed by the two advertisements he placed in the Dagblad van ‘s-Gravenhage (‘Newspaper of The Hague’) in July and August of the same year. In these ads, Bückmann especially promotes his skill in portraiture produced with the daguerreotype technique. At this time, portraiture was still the most dependable source of income for a professional photographer. The advertisement of 27 August reveals that Bückmann had taken over the clientele of Hippolyte Caluyer, a photographer from Paris who was returning to the French capital for a brief period: ‘Portraits in Daguerreotype (non-fading). As a result of these arrangements between M. Caluyer et M. Bückmann, M. Caluyer has the honour of informing his numerous clientele, that they will find with M. Bückmann all the respect and attentiveness befitting the perseverance and trust they have always shown to M. Caluyer; M. Bückmann, the successor of M. Caluyer, assures everyone who gives him the privilege of their trust, that he will do everything in his power to keep them satisfied, that all amateurs will be very convinced, that M. Bückmann, who succeeds M. Caluyer, whose establishment has moved to the Maliestraat, No. 193, vis-à-vis ‘the Smidswater’. It is probable that Bückmann learned to photograph from Caluyer, and that he mastered the daguerreotype technique using Caluyer’s cameras, equipment, instruction manuals, and darkroom.

Bückmann also tried out other photographic techniques. This conclusion can be drawn from a book entitled ‘Mystères dévoilés de la photographie sur plaques, papiers et verres’ (‘Mysteries Unveiled of Photography on Cardboard, Paper and Glass’), which Bückmann wrote in 1853 after two years of practical experience working with photography. This publication—which we can only judge from its title—was in all likelihood a technical instruction manual. Treatises on the various photographic processes, which at this time were chiefly published outside the Netherlands, may perhaps have been the inspiration. In the Netherlands, there were virtually no publications of this sort. In 1845, a book by F.A.W. Retto was published under the title [English translation]: The calotype portrait art or instructions on how to not simply depict the portraits of persons but generally all kinds of objects, landscapes, buildings, etc., in a few minutes, even without the slightest knowledge of drawing and painting, extremely close to the natural appearance and very detailed at a minimum of cost. Other sources providing chiefly technical information were translated articles written by foreign authors that appeared in magazines such as Nederlandsch Magazijn (‘Netherlands Magazine’), Tijdschrift ter bevordering van nijverheid (‘Magazine for the Promotion of Industry’), het jaarboekje van wetenschappen en kunsten (‘The Yearbook of the Sciences and Arts’) or the Algemeene Konst- en Letterbode (‘General Art and Literature Messenger’). For the rest, one learned what one needed to know from foreign photographers travelling in The Netherlands. Because it was Caluyer—we assume—who taught the trade to Bückmann, an orientation in favour of French photographic processes is conceivable.

Bückmann produced his series of cityscapes close to his home, where there were enough interesting places to be seen. In 1854, he photographed the royal palace Huis ten Bosch. Other shots of the Ridderzaal (‘Hall of Knights’), the Kneuterdijk Palace, the Korte Voorhout, the Tournooiveld, and the Hofvijver date from 1855. In the same year, Bückmann also mad a photograph of his own ‘Photographisch Etablissement’ (‘Photographic Establishment’), a view from the upstairs window on the Smidswater and shots of the Maliestraat and the Houtweg. There are also shots of Villa Boschlust and De Paauw in Wassenaar. And during a daytrip to Delft, as well in 1855, he made photographs of various locations, including the main market square and the city hall. The prints reveal a carefully decided framing and a preference for the horizontal format. By using a camera with a kind of wide-angle lens (with a short focal length) in combination with a low vantage point, Bückmann was also able to achieve a spacious, vast view of the object he was photographing.

When considering this laudable photographic activity was undertaken in such a short period of time, one might presume that Bückmann was working on a project or commissioned basis. The choice of technique—the calotype, or salt print, was generally considered more ‘painterly’ than the small but sharply-defined daguerreotype—and the large format of photographs(30×20 cm and 20×15 cm), including signature and date, likewise indicate that Bückmann wished either to exhibit his work or publish it in a collective volume. He might also have been responding to the appeal of the Vereeniging voor Volksvlijt (‘Association of Industry’) for people to send in photos for an international Tentoonstelling van Photographie (‘Exhibition of Photography’) to be held in Amsterdam in April, May, and June 1855, and in The Hague in July of that same year. Or perhaps it was a visit to this exhibition, located close to the drawing academy on the Boschkant (now the Prinsessegracht) in The Hague, which had inspired him to produce a special series of cityscapes. At this exhibition, after all, photographs were on display taken by renowned photographers from abroad, such as Hermann Krone, Bisson frères, Charles Nègre, Edouard Baldus and Charles Marville, who all applied the same technique with the very same genres: landscape and topographic photography. Bückmann’s colleague in The Hague, H.C. Schuijt tot Castricum, even exhibited three ‘gezigten te ‘s Gravenhage’ (‘views of The Hague’), which were also salt prints.

On this point, however, the sources provide us with no information that would allow us to reconstruct the photographer’s motives. The minutes of the ‘Vereeniging ter beoefening van de geschiedenis der stad ‘s-Gravenhage’ (‘Association for the Cultivation of the History of The Hague’), which could potentially have confirmed the existence of a commission or project, make no mention whatsoever of any such endeavour, album, or even a photograph by Bückmann. The possibility that Bückmann took part in the exhibitions in Amsterdam or The Hague can neither be dismissed nor confirmed. The absence of Bückmann’s name in the catalogue of the Tentoonstelling van Photographie does not necessarily rule out his participation. People also exhibited work without having their names listed. At this time, no advertisements or notices in the Dagblad van ‘s-Gravenhage have been discovered, in which Bückmann’s cityscapes are mentioned or reviewed.

Not only the sources, but also Bückmann himself, leave us in the dark when it comes to much of his work. After his series of cityscapes—as far as can be determined—he never again worked with photography on a creative basis. It would seem as if the innovation and changes affecting his profession had quickly passed him by, without him being able to connect in some way. In these years, the daguerreotype and calotype had become obsolete thanks to Frederick Scott Archer’s wet collodion process, which made use of glass negatives and albumen paper for the positives. This new technique provided a major stimulus for the emergence of the photographic industries, such as stereo photography and carte-de-visite photography. Only in this last genre of photography has Bückmann left behind scarce traces of his work. For the rest, no other photos have survived from the thirty years he was making photographs. Large quantities have survived of the stereoscopic cityscapes produced by Jacobus van Koningsveld, Maria Hille, Pieter Oosterhuis and Adolphe Braun in ‘s-Gravenhage. With respect to this commonly practiced genre, which could potentially have become his specialty, Bückmann left nothing.

Only on a hypothetic basis can a comparison be made between Bückmann’s photos and the series of cityscapes that Alexandrine Tinne made several years later. In 1861, this noblewoman from The Hague took shots of the very same places that Bückmann had photographed: the Lange Voorhout, the Korte Voorhout, as well as the Houtweg, a shot in which Bückmann’s studio can be seen. Was she possibly a pupil of Bückmann’s, as proposed by Tineke de Ruiter in her article on Alexandrine Tinne? And had she seen him at work in his studio? Bückmann is most likely to have at least been familiar with the remarkable sight of this noblewoman with a camera, taking photographs practically in front of his door. It is not known whether they ever exchanged ideas or their knowledge of photography with one another. The only evidence to support such a conclusion is their preference for the same subject matter and stylistic similarities in vantage point and composition.

After a much promising start, Bückmann’s activity became surprisingly quiet. Extant sources will never provide any definitive conclusion as to why his photographic production diminished to but a few carte-de-visite portraits. J. Geselschap’s casual remark characterising Bückmann as a ‘basically destitute figure’ appears to be confirmed by the sudden rupture in his career.

Bückmann and his cityscapes would perhaps have been forgotten were it not for nine photographs donated to the Haags Gemeentearchief (‘Hague City Archive’) in 1897. This rather curious donation was made by C.M. Dewald (1868-1923), who regularly did photographic reproduction work for the Hague archive. Dewald may perhaps have received the photographs, or purchased them, from Bückmann’s daughter, Hermina, who moved to The Hague in December 1896. In any event, Dewald was quite clearly aware of the photo-historical value of this small pile of photographs, because along with his donation, he provided additional information concerning the technique he had applied to produce them. As the archivist recorded in the inventory book of prints and drawings: ‘For Nos. 6199 to 6207 the notification applies, that these photographs were produced from printing plates [‘clichés’] of J.W. (!) Bückmann 1855, for which good paper has been used, that has been sensitised with collodion, and after that made transparent with turpentine. The glass printing plates [clichés] were unknown.’ Of these nine photographs, only one has been preserved in the Hague City Archive. Twenty-five years later, in 1933, Dewald’s widow transferred the original negatives—twenty-four in total—to the archive. In 1938, Ms. Dietz-Bückmann donated a few additional portraits shot by Bückmann from the family’s archive, including a self-portrait. With her donation, the stature and the person of Bückmann himself were finally somewhat better defined.

Documentation