Lucie Blachet

Lucie Blachet (1828–1907), was a Dutch photographer. She was one of the first female photographers in the Netherlands.

Life and work

Blachet was born in Saint-Mandé, the illegitimate daughter of 18-year-old Lucie Françoise Blachet, a Cirque Olympique rider. She later lived in Paris, where she may have met her husband-to-be. In 1850 she married the Dutch painter Jacobus van Koningsveld (1824-1866) in Amsterdam. Her husband opened a photography studio in The Hague in 1859.

After the death of Van Koningsveld in 1866, Blachet continued the business under the name Veuve J. van Koningsveld, initially in The Hague and Scheveningen, from 1868 in Deventer. She was assisted in this by Gerrit Jan van Koningsveld (1844-1922), probably an uncle of her husband. He managed the studio in Scheveningen until 1873 and then moved to Deventer.  In 1891 Blachet and Van Koningsveld moved to Brummen, where she died in 1907 at the age of 78.

Works in public collections (selection)

• Rijksmuseum Amsterdam

Sources, notes, and/or references

1. Dutch photographers from 1839: Koningsveld, Veuve J. van
2. ↑ Mensonides, H.M. (1977) "A new art in The Hague. Encyclopedic overview of the first photographers in The Hague", Die Haghe. Yearbook 1977, pp. 47–104
3. ↑ Rooseboom, H.T. (2006) The Shadow of the Photographer : Position and Status of a New Profession: Photography in the Netherlands, 1839-1889. Utrecht. (dissertation)
4. ↑ Gerrit Jan van Koningsveld (10 March 1844 – 1 February 1922) was a son of Jan van Koningsveld and Marie Henriette Pelgrin. He lived with the Van Koningsveld family in The Hague and moved to Deventer in 1873. According to Rooseboom, he is listed in the population register of Deventer as Blachet's brother-in-law and nephew.
5. ↑ Biographical data at the RKD-Netherlands Institute for Art History
6. ↑ Objects in the Rijksmuseum