While Hannon photographed the various subjects fashionable in his day (still life, anecdotal scenes, studies of young women, and so on), he is chiefly remembered for his landscapes featuring forests and woodlands, and for the famous Coppélia, which recalls the Symbolist aesthetic. (1.)

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Édouard Hannon: 1853-1931

The following historical chronology of the photographer appears courtesy of the Directory of Belgian Photographers hosted online by Fotomuseum Antwerp. (FOMU)

Life dates

Brussels – Ixelles, 1853 – Brussels – Saint-Gilles, 1931

Activity

1874 – 1905 Bruxelles – Ixelles

Edouard Henri Paul Joseph Lorédan, ° 13.1.1853; + 23.1.1931. Younger brother of the painter and writer Théo Hannon (1851-1916). Student in Ghent in 1874-1875. Engineer. Director of “S.A. Solvay”. Founder member of the ABP. In the ABP membership lists: Rue Crespel, 38 in 1882; Avenue (de) Limauge(s), 12 in 1883-1890; and Rue de la Concorde, 43 in 1891-1906, the latter a townhouse in Flemish Neo-Renaissance style built for Hannon by his childhood friend, Brussels architect Jules Brunfaut (1852-1942) in 1885.

Portraits of members of his family, documentation and photo-reportages during business trips to and stays in Russia, the United States, Spain and Italy. Pioneer of pictorialism in Belgium, co-organiser of the “Salon photographique” at the “Cercle artistique”, Brussels, 1895, where the great names of French pictorialism such as Demachy and Puyo exhibited. Exhibited in the first four salons of the “Photo-Club de Paris”, 1894-1897. Corresponding member of the “Gesellschaft zur Förderung der Amateur-Photographie”, Hamburg in 1899.

1906 – 1914 > Bruxelles – Saint-Gilles, Rue de la Jonction, 1 (private)

Hannon had another Brussels townhouse built by Jules Brunfaut, this time in Art Nouveau style, at Rue de la Jonction in 1903-1904. Emile Gallé was commissioned to design the interior, completed by Louis Majorelle after Gallé’s death in November 1904. In the ABP membership lists, this address is recorded only from 1913, preceded by Brussels – Saint-Gilles, Rue Henri Wafelaers, no street number, in 1907-1912. Still a member of the ABP in 1922. The house used to be home to “L’Espace Photographique Contretype”, trustees of a collection of Hannon’s negatives, from 1988 to 2014.

1. Marc Vausort: Léonard Misonne and Belgian Pictorialism: Impressionist Camera: Pictorial Photography in Europe, 1888-1918 : Merrell Publishers : 2006 : p.163