Alphonse Giroux
François-Simon-Alphonse Giroux (6 April 1776, Paris - 1 May 1848, Paris) was a French art restorer and ébéniste.
Alphonse Giroux | |
|---|---|
| Born | 6 April 1776 |
| Died | 1 May 1848 |
| Nationality | French |
Life and work
He studied painting under Jacques-Louis David, and founded an art restoration business near the end of the 18th century. He was the official restorer of Notre Dame Cathedral, and collected and exhibited art by Louis Daguerre, Charles Marie Bouton, Charles Arrowsmith, Charles Renoux, and others. As well as restoring art, his business made and sold furniture in various styles for the French royal family and others.[1]
In June 1833 Alph. Giroux & Cie. introduced the Phénakisticope in France, as one of the first companies to publish the animation device after it was more or less simultaneously invented in Belgium and Austria. The company's name for the device would end up to be the most commonly used one, soon adapted as 'phenakistiscope' in England (and later misspelled as 'phenakistoscope').
Giroux is also known for constructing the daguerreotype cameras designed by Daguerre,[2] the first commercially manufactured photographic camera in the world. A mass-produced daugerrotype camera cabinet manufactured by Giroux, who was the brother-in-law of Louis Daguerre, was exhibited at the 1839 Exposition des produits de l'industrie française in Paris. It did not win an award, although Giroux did gain a silver medal for a jewelry box.[3]
The painter André Giroux was one of his sons.[1]
References
- Whiteley, Linda (2000), "Giroux", in Turner, Jane (ed.), The Grove dictionary of art: From Monet to Cézanne : late 19th-century French artists, Oxford University Press, pp. 208–209, ISBN 978-0-312-22971-9.
- Mannoni, Laurent (2000), The great art of light and shadow: archaeology of the cinema, University of Exeter Press, p. 221, ISBN 978-0-85989-567-5.
- Chandler, Arthur, Expositions of the July Monarchy, retrieved 2017-10-12