Chevalier, Charles-Louis

SUBJECT AREA: Photography, film and optics

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b. 18 April 1804 France

d. 21 November 1859 Paris, France

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French instrument maker and optician.

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The son of a distinguished Parisian instrument maker, Charles Chevalier supplied equipment to all the major photographic pioneers of the period. He sold a camera obscura to Niepce de St Victor as early as 1826 and was largely responsible for bringing Niepce de St Victor and Daguerre together. Chevalier was one of the first opticians to design lenses specifically for photographic use; the first photographic camera to be offered for sale to the public, the Giroux daguerreotype camera of 1839, was in fact fitted with a Chevalier achromatic lens. Chevalier also supplied lenses, equipment and examples of daguerreotypes to Talbot in England. In 1841 Chevalier was awarded first prize in a competition for the improvement of photographic lenses, sponsored by the Société d'Encouragement of Paris. Contemporary opinion, however, favoured the runner-up, the Petzval Portrait lens by Voigtländer of Vienna, and Chevalier subsequently became embroiled in an acrimonious dispute which did him little credit. It did not stop him designing lenses, and he went on to become an extremely successful supplier of quality daguerreotype equipment. He was a founder member of the Société Héliographique in 1851.

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Further Reading

Pavillon de Photographie du Parc Naturel Régional de Brotonne, 1974, Charles-Louis Chevalier (an authoritative account of Chevalier's life and work).

H.Gernsheim and A.Gernsheim, 1969, The History of Photography, rev. edn, London.

JW