PBA Galleries

Adolphe Braun was born at Besançon in 1811. He first trained as a textile designer and opened his own studio at Dornach in Alsace. He only turned to photography in 1853, when he produced a series of some 300 still-life studies of flowers, entitled Fleurs Photographiées. Originally intended as designs for wallpaper and as an aid to designers in the fabric industry, these were immediately recognized as an artistic achievement in their own right. One album of the photographs was presented to the Empress Eugénie, and the work met with such success at the 1855 Exposition Universelle that Braun left the field of design for photography. Adolphe Braun loved texture, as evidenced by the way his lens treated stones, bricks, rubble and earth. This is exemplified by his series entitled Théâtre de la Guerre, 1870-1871, which showed the aftermath of the Franco-Prussian War in eastern France, where most of the fighting had taken place. 

Comprises:

• Chateau of Montbéliard.
• Scene of the War 1870-71. Upper Rhine, Dornach.
• Chateau St. Cloud. Western Facade.
• [Sc]ene of War 1870-71. (Corner chipped affecting caption).
• Pontalier, 1870-71.
• Scene of War 1870-71. Near Montbéliard.
• Untitled landscape with farm and Italian cypress trees.
• Scene of the Franco-German War 1870-71. Upper Rhine near Belford.
• St. Denis. View Taken from Montenois.
• Ornans, Scene of Franco-German War 1870-71.
• Belfort. Scene of War 1870-71.
• Scene of the War 1870-71. Montbéliard.
• Scene of War 1870-71. Belfort Chateau.
• Untitled landscape scene.
• Scene of Franco-German War 1870-71.
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