Félix-Jacques Moulin
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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"on a saisi à leurs domiciles un grand nombre de sujets tellement obscènes que l'énonciation même des titres que leur donne l'arrêt de renvoi serait un délit d'outrage à la morale publique" --L'Ami de la religion: Volume 153 - 1851 "In 1851, for instance, the court of assizes of the Seine fined and sentenced the optician Jules Malacrida and the daguerreotypist Jacques-Antoine Moulin (possibly F.-J. Moulin, q.v., or a member of his family) for “the great number of ..."--After Daguerre: Masterworks of French Photography (1848–1900) from the Bibliothèque Nationale (1980) by Bernard Marbot, page 152 |
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Félix-Jacques Antoine Moulin (March 27, 1802–December 12, 1875) was a French photographer, known for his erotic photographs such as this hayloft scene and Two Nudes Standing.
In 1849, Moulin opened a photographer's shop at 31 bis rue du Faubourg Montmartre and started producing daguerreotypes of young girls aged 14 to 16. In 1851, Moulin's work was confiscated, and he was sentenced to one month of imprisonment for the "obscene" character of his works, "so obscene that even to pronounce the titles (...) would be to commit an indecency" according to the court archives [1].
- La cour d'assises, présidée par M. Pinsot, a condamné Malacrida à un au d'emprisonnement et 500 fr. d'amende; Moulin à un mois de prison et 100 fr. d'amende ; la veuve René à deux mois de la même peine et 200 francs d'amende. ... (L'Ami de la religion et du roi: journal ecclésiastique, 1851)
After his release, Moulin continued his activities more discreetly. He taught photography, sold equipment, and had a backdoor made to his shop to dodge further legal problems. His works gained esteem from critics.
In 1856, Moulin made a photographic trip to Algeria, with over one tonne of equipment, and backed by the government which gave him access to the facilities of the colonial authorities. There, he met technical difficulties due to variations in humidity, work in the open, and the quality of water, but managed nonetheless to extensively document the French colonies in Northern Africa. He came back in 1858 with hundreds of photographs of landscapes, cities, archeologic surveys and portraits of inhabitants, and published 300 of them as L'Algérie photographiée, a three-volume in folio work. These documents became official brochures of the colonial rule of Napoléon III, to whom the work was dedicated [2]. They toured Europe in several expositions.
Moulin retired in 1862 and died in 1875.
List of photos
- Hayloft scene (Félix-Jacques Moulin)
- Nu allongé sur jeté de dentelle
- Two Nudes Standing (ca. 1850)[3]
See also
- Visual art censorship
- User:Jahsonic/On the ineffability of censored material in the obscenity trials
![[3]](http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Two_nudes_standing_Moulin.jpg){kind=link}