View from the Window at Le Gras

View from the office of Le Gras ( La cour du domaine du french Grass ) is the first successfully recorded and preserved photography in the world. It was made ​​in 1826 by Joseph Nicéphore Nièpce in French Saint -Loup- de -Varennes. The photo shows the view from the study of Niepce's estate Le Gras. From the left side, a viewer first sees the frame of the window sash, the tower-like pigeon house of the estate and further away a tree, a small building with a shed roof and finally a tower- shaped chimney, probably the bakehouse.

Nicéphore Nièpce created the photo using a camera obscura. This focused on a spread with lavender oil dissolved in natural asphalt tin plate of 20 × 25 cm size. The asphalt mixture cured from, depending on the degree of exposure lighter or darker. After eight hours of exposure time, the plate was washed with a mixture of lavender oil and petroleum and the photo will be fixed by it. An optical effect of the long exposure time resulted in the fact that the buildings on both sides failed to produce a shadow on the image.

Niépce was trying to win the public interest for the person designated by him photogravure method and traveled to London to present his photo of the Royal Society. This failed and Niépce gave the image the British botanist Francis Bauer. The last time the work was publicly exposed in 1898 and then fell into oblivion.

1952 acquired Helmut Gernsheim the photo, and with the help of specialists from Kodak, a copy was first made ​​.

In 1963 acquired the University of Texas, the board of Helmut Gernsheim. Since then she has exhibited in Austin, Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center at the University.

Because of the great sensitivity - the photo is filled presents with oxygen-free inert gas in a box - the photo is in principle not be awarded. An exception was the birth of photography made ​​for the exhibition, under which it could be seen from September 2012 to January 2013 in Mannheim, Germany, as there is here in the Reiss- Engelhorn Museums of the other part of the collection of Gernsheim.