The Kitchens of the Imperial Asylum at Vincennes

In 1859 Nègre was commissioned to photograph the inauguration of the Imperial Asylum in the Bois de Vincennes, a charitable institution founded by Empress Eugénie for disabled workmen. While the pomp and circumstance of the inaugural events were duly recorded, the majority of the photographs focus on everyday life at the institution and its efficient inner-workings: the patients in the refectory, library, and café as well as the nuns and other staff at work in the kitchen, pharmacy, and laundry. Trained as a painter, Nègre organized his photographs with a sophisticated eye for composition and the effects of light. Even in the kitchens, where one might expect to find a clamorous scene, Nègre conveyed serenity by focusing on the neatly arranged platters of fruit and double row of white bowls; the soft indirect light imbues the scene with a sense of immanence.