First permanent photograph returns to France after two centuries
Point de vue du Gras will be temporarily displayed at the Musée Nicéphore-Niépce from April 2027.
One of the oldest known permanent photographs is returning to France for the first time since its creation. Nicéphore Niépce’s Point de vue du Gras will be exhibited in Chalon-sur-Saône from April 2027.
It is a plate depicting buildings and the landscape around Niépce’s home. The image was made in 1827 using a camera obscura and a light-sensitive layer on a tin plate. The very long exposure time makes several areas of light and shadow visible in the image.
Niépce worked for years on a method of permanently recording images formed in a camera. The French government and the scientific committee behind the bicentenary of photography regard Point de vue du Gras as a work marking the birth of photography.
The plate belongs to the collection of the Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas at Austin. Thanks to an exceptional loan, the work can return to the region where it was made. The Musée Nicéphore-Niépce will display the photograph in an exhibition about the invention and early development of the medium.
According to the organisers, the presentation will run from late April to late June 2027. The exact dates are linked to the French programme for two hundred years of photography, which runs from September 2026 to September 2027 and also includes exhibitions, research and public activities.
The designation ‘first photograph’ requires some caution. The image is regarded as one of the earliest photographs made with a camera to have been permanently recorded, but the history of photography includes various precursors, experiments and definitions of what counts as the first photograph.
For visitors, the combination of object and place is particularly remarkable: the photograph was not only made in France, but is returning to the setting depicted in it. The loan connects an American collection with French heritage and shows how fragile access to early photographic works can be.
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The exhibition announcement comes from the French Ministry of Culture and is supported by independent reporting. Historical qualifications have been carefully worded.
- confirmed Point de vue du Gras will be exhibited in Chalon-sur-Saône from April 2027. — Reported in the official programme for the bicentenary. source
- confirmed The photograph was made by Nicéphore Niépce in 1827. — Described in the official announcement. source
- confirmed The plate comes from the collection of the Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas at Austin. — Mentioned by the French ministry and Digital Camera World. source
Editor's note
The loan, location and exhibition period have been confirmed by the French government and an independent specialist publication. The term ‘first photograph’ has deliberately been qualified because historical definitions differ.Sources
- La plus ancienne photographie connue s'expose en France — Bicentenaire de la photographie, Ministère de la Culture
- The first-ever photograph is returning home to France — Digital Camera World
- The Bicentennial of Photography — Ministère de la Culture
More on this in Dutch media
- AD — „fotografie nicéphore niépce”
- de Volkskrant — „fotografie nicéphore niépce”
- RTL Nieuws — „fotografie nicéphore niépce”