Album of Photographs of Brazil by Marc Ferrez, with Views of Paris, c. 1880s–1890s
[France and Brazil]: [c. 1880s–1890s]. Large-format oblong folio photographic album containing 50 late 19th-century albumen prints mounted on 25 card leaves, most with printed captions in French. The sequence comprises 13 uncredited views of Paris and 37 Brazilian views by Marc Ferrez, the latter almost all titled and credited on the plate. Contemporary full black pebble-grain leather binding, raised bands, gilt fillet borders, all edges gilt. Oblong folio, 25 card leaves (image sizes approx. 220 × 155 mm, slightly varying). Prints in very good condition, with sharp definition, strong contrast, and minimal fading; tonal depth and surface gloss well preserved. Mounts generally clean, showing only light handling marks. Binding sound and well-preserved, with minor rubbing to extremities; joints firm; gilt edges bright.
Large album of 37 Brazilian views by Marc Ferrez—including rare early ethnographic portraits of Indigenous and Afro-Brazilian subjects—together with architectural, landscape, and city views.
A large-format photographic album containing 50 late 19th-century prints, beginning with a sequence of 13 views of Paris monuments, followed by an extensive series of 37 Brazilian photographs by Marc Ferrez. The Brazilian section includes Ferrez’s architectural, landscape, and city views of Rio de Janeiro and its environs, including Santa Casa de Misericórdia, Hotel Villa Moreau in Tijuca, the Jardim Botânico, Corcovado, Sugarloaf Mountain, Botafogo Bay with shipping and quays, Tijuca waterfalls and forest scenes, harbour views, a coffee plantation in mountainous terrain, and the Pont de Sylvestre railway bridge—many of them less known than his panoramic works yet equally representative of his technical and compositional mastery.
It also contains ethnographic portraits of Indigenous and Afro-Brazilian subjects, including an Apiacá chief, a Kayapó chief, a Toba (Qom) woman, and a group of Botocudo from southern Bahia—photographed in 1874 during the geological expedition led by Charles Frederick Hartt of Cornell University, on which Ferrez served as official photographer. This expedition produced the first photographic documentation of the Botocudo people. The portraits of the Apiacá and Kayapó chiefs were taken against the same indigenous-made textile or hide backdrop, an important ethnographic element offering visual evidence of material culture alongside their clothing, adornments, and personal representation.
The ethnographic portraits are as follows:
- Botocudo (Bahia) — Types d’Indiens Botacudos, Bahia Brésil — Two profile portraits showing the distinctive labial and auricular disks, the first photographic record of the Botocudo people.
- Afro-Brazilian women from Bahia — Double studio portrait, including the celebrated Negra da Bahia (c. 1885), in elaborate traje de crioula with turban, lace blouse, skirt, jewelry, and balangandãs, alongside a companion in similar attire but with less elaborate ornamentation. As discussed by Hanayrá Negreiros (Sewing the Past, ReVista), these images reflect active self-fashioning and cultural identity.
- Toba (Qom) woman (Gran Chaco) — Indienne Toba, Rio Pilcomayo (Grand Chaco) — Rare image from the Rio Pilcomayo region, posed before a reed background, representing one of the earliest photographic records of this group.
- Kayapó chief (Goiás) — Costume des chefs indiens Cayapó (Goyaz) — Full-length portrait of a Kayapo leader, in ceremonial attire with feathered headdress, body paint, necklace, and traditional weapons, posed before the backdrop noted above; among the earliest surviving images of the Kayapó, predating systematic anthropological surveys.
- Apiacá chief (Amazon) — Costume des chefs indiens Appiacaz (Amazone) — Portrait of an Apiacá leader in full ceremonial headdress and ornamentation, wearing layered necklaces and holding a long spear, posed before the backdrop noted above; an extremely scarce early record of this Amazonian people.
Together, these images—studio-staged yet ethnographically significant—constitute some of the earliest surviving photographs of their respective communities, preceding the formal consolidation of anthropological photography in Brazil. They are presented here alongside less familiar but equally accomplished views of Rio de Janeiro’s architecture and landscapes, preserving original albumen prints by one of the most prolific and influential Brazilian photographers of the 19th century.
Marc Ferrez (1843–1923) was born in Rio de Janeiro into an artistic family and apprenticed at Casa Leuzinger under Franz Keller before opening his own studio in 1865. In 1874 he served as official photographer on the geological expedition led by Charles Frederick Hartt. In 1882 he contributed portraits of Indigenous subjects and artifacts to Brazil’s first Anthropological Exhibition at the National Museum, anticipating later ethnographic visual studies. His work in this field—alongside his architectural and landscape views—represents one of the earliest sustained photographic records of Brazil’s cultural and human diversity. Today, his legacy is preserved in major collections, notably nearly 1,000 prints at the Getty, assembled by his historian descendant Gilberto Ferrez, and over 4,000 original glass negatives at the Instituto Moreira Salles.
Reference: Brasiliana Fotográfica. (2025). Cronologia de Marc Ferrez (1843–1923). ; Getty Research Institute. (n.d.). Series I. Marc Ferrez photographs, 1860–1919, undated [Archival series]. In Gilberto Ferrez collection of photographs of nineteenth-century Brazil, 1856–1940. R; Ferrez, G. (1990). Photography in Brazil, 1840–1900. Columbia University Press; Negreiros, H. (2024, November 20). Sewing the Past: The Enigma and Dress of an Afro‑Brazilian Gentlewoman. ReVista: Harvard Review of Latin America. Retrieved August 12, 2025, f
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Price: €45,000.00