Founded in 1877, Giraudon is the prestigious French picture archive dealing specifically in fine art, history, architecture and archaeology. It contains images from thousands of collections depicting the art and culture of every continent. French art features strongly and highlights include Impressionist works from the Musée Marmottan-Monet, Paris, the Louvre, Musée d’Orsay and regional French collections. Key French collections are also represented such as the Bonora collection of Asian art. Under the ownership of Editions Larousse from 1953 to 1991, Giraudon acquired a vast number of historical engravings, book illustrations and fine examples of French master photography. Of special interest are the De Gaulle Archives, Dornac’s portraits of famous French writers and Moreau’s poignant photographs of the First World War.
Adolphe Giraudon was an outstanding photographer who specialised in art, architecture, history and archaeology and founded the Bibibliothèque Photographique in 1877. His studio was across the street from Auguste Rodin, who was among one of Giraudon’s first clients. With the authorisation of the Home Secretary he established various Academies for painters and sculptors, specialising in life classes and the academic disciplines.
The original purpose of building the collection, as far as Adolphe Giraudon was concerned, was to provide scholars with access to art and cultural images which were not available in books at the time. The educational access envisaged by Adolphe Giraudon continues to be fundamental to our activities. By 1895 he had acquired 65,000 images, from his many European contacts and his mission statement proudly displayed on his office stationery identified his area of interest as 'The History of Art and Civilisation' and 'All types and all periods of Art'. He increased his own collection by taking photographs, first in museums within Paris, then in the outskirts of Paris and finally in the rest of France. Adolphe and his wife, Claire, who had a close interest in the company, had a son, Georges, whom, when he left school in 1906, became their apprentice. Nine years later he took over from his father who moved to Charost, in the Cher region ..... the village where he was born and where his studio was located. His parents continued to work in the company and to oversee the cataloguing, the stock archive and the prints which were sent out daily. Continuing in his father's footsteps, Georges expanded his own collection between the two World Wars, by taking new photographs at art exhibitions in France. He also attended some of the first congresses and meetings on copyright issues relating to the visual arts.
After World War II, the economy slowed down. Georges Giraudon had no children and decided in 1953 to sell his archive to Librairie Larousse, with the understanding that the archive should retain his name and remain intact. René Faille became Director in the same year, a position he retained until 1982 introducing new photographs and organising photographic campaigns in public and private collections around France. He also bought transparencies in France as well as abroad and in 1971 started to publish catalogues.
The Library expanded considerably particularly after the appointment of Monique Le Pelley Fonteny as the new director in 1984 and new agreements were forged with other archives such as The Bridgeman Art Library in the United Kingdom, Art Resource in the United States of America and in Italy Fratelli Alinari, which made it possible to introduce new subjects and collections and to find new markets. New technology introduced at the end of the twentieth century, such as the internet, digital photography and scanning, considerably changed the business which moved to new premises in 2001 after its acquisition by the Bridgeman Art Library. Under the leadership of Harriet Bridgeman, the Managing Director, Pandora Mather-Lees, the International Director, Didier Lénart, the French Director and an experienced team of art historians and picture researchers, the philosophy of Adolphe Giraudon remains the driving force. "Make available, as far as possible, everything that is beautiful in the world".