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Shortly after the Daguerreotype process was made public a prominent member of the French Academy of Sciences, François Arago, posed the question, “Is this invention one which will render a valuable service to archaeology and the fine arts?” Many painters of note, among them Eugène Delacroix felt that artists might benefit from it. The fact that Delacroix was interested in photography has been known since the publication of his journal which contains a number of revealing references. On May 21, 1853, he wrote “After dinner, they looked over the photographs which I owe to the kindness of Durieu … let a man of genius make use of the daguerreotype as it is to be used, and he will raise himself to a height that we do not know.” Eugène Durieu, Directeur des Cultes for the French government, who was an accomplished amateur photographer and close friend of Delacroix, assembled an album of one hundred and fifteen photographs which is now in the George Eastman House museum. Apart from its value for the history of photography, one wonders in view of Delacroix's interest, whether any of these photographs can be related to his drawings or paintings.
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